Legend of Villain
by LegendDragon
Summary: Ok, Chapter 12 is finally here! Please, please review it! Go in and read it! AN: Looking for new Editor for my story!
1. Default Chapter

Final Fantasy: Legend of Villain

Disclaimer: I do not own FF7 characters...however, I do own dragons stuff plus made up names. So, dont sue me. P

Chapter 1: The begining

Key: xxxxx changes scene

It has been 3 years since Meteor destroyed Midgar. People called it the Ruins of Midgar since it was to be honored as a memorial. They still remember a villain named Sephiroth who killed millions of innocent people and tried to destroy the world using the Meteor that he summoned. But now, it has been a peaceful 3 years. Cloud and Tifa marries and live in Kalm, which is only 50 miles away from Midgar. Cid still works on airships, airplanes, and rockets in Rocketown. Red-XIII is now the guardian of his hometown, and enforces the peace. Yuffie also now guards her hometown in Wutai from any enemies, but she still steals any materias she comes across. Cait Sith is no longer on the earth since Reeves was controlling him, except the cat who sits on big mog is with him now. He is blind but his behavior is still the same. Vincent is hiding in his ruined mansion (don't ask.) Barret works his ass off in Midgar to clean it out with his adopted daughter, Marlene.

"It has been 3 years since Meteor destroyed Midgar." Thought Cloud as he stared over the Ruins of Midgar. Midgar carries a lot of memories from the past and it never dies.

"Cloud?" calls Tifa from down stair.

"Huh?" Cloud blinked.

"Cloud, Barret wants you go over there and help him out." Says Tifa.

Cloud groans. He doesn't feel like cleaning the shit in Midgar.

"Why can't we leave Midgar as it is?" Thinks Cloud. He sighs and goes down the stairs to kiss his lovely wife then sets off on his motorcycle for Midgar.

"I'll see you later, Tifa!" Cloud yells as he leaves.

"Bye, Cloud!" Tifa yells back.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Red-XIII walks around his own hometown as usual, staring out at Midgar from the summit of the town. He missed his friends from Midger who saved it in the past. He wonders if his friends ever go there. He knows that no one loves Midgar since it was full of dirty air, but he feels like he should go there and help clean the place up. The young man walks by the gate and sees Red nearby.

"Hey, Danny," calls Red.

"Yes, Sir?" said Danny. "Think you could fly me to Midgar?" asked Red. Danny nodded. Red bid farewell to his people at his hometown and has gone to small plane. They left for Midgar.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Fuck!" said a grumpy Cid as he pounded a hammer on his own hand while he worked on a rocket.

"Sir? Are you all right?" asked a worried pilot, looking up from a series of buzzing control panels.

"Yes, I'm perfectly fuckin' fine! Leave me the fuck alone!" Yelled Cid then focused on his work. He looks up at the new Highwind that is parked outside of Rocketown.

"I hope my new baby works good..."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Barret grunts and lifts up the heavy rubble and throws them into the dump area. He pants and wipes sweat on his forehead.

"CLOUD!" yelled Marlene as she ran to Cloud and jumped on him.

"Whoa! You're getting heavy, Marlene!" laughs Cloud.

"Yo, Cloud." Called Barret as he walked over.

"Hey Barret, need any help?" asks Cloud. Barret nods and they lift up another chunk of rubble and throw it into the dump.

"This used to be part of a bookstore," Barret motioned to the faded writing on the heavy debris. Cloud could make out the 'oble Booksto' written in a flowing script. "Shin-Ra messed up too many things in their day..." his voice trails off as Red shows up.

"Hey Cloud, Barret." called Red.

"Damn, you grew up big!" says Barret.

"Heh, I'm a guardian of my hometown now. I'm following my father's path this way." said Red.

"Guardian, huh? Grats." said Cloud. Red nods his thanks. They continue to clean the mess and throw it into dump area.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The man slowly wakes up, his vision unclear. He blinks his eyes to see the huge glass that covers him. He raises his hand slowly and tries to push the glass but he is too weak. He decides to focus all his strength into kicking the glass. He grunts and his right foot raises then drops on the glass. BANG! ... BANG! The glass starts to crack and is about to break. He kicks the glass a third time, shattering it with a crash and falls out of the chamber.

"Uh!" says the man as he crashes onto the ground. He looks up then looks around the place. He finds that everything has been torn to rubble or burned to ashes. The man struggles to stand up, but falls back down with a groan of pain. Looking over his left leg that has been bleeding and the bone is badly broken. He has no idea how he got this way.

"What the hell is this? Where am I? Why is everything here destroyed?" Thought the man. Just then the five of large winged, purple skinned and three yellow eyes demons show up, attracted by the smell of fresh blood. He looks up and sees them begin to advance towards him.

"Too many of them...I can't get away from them with this broken leg!" gasps the man as he grunts and crawls over to the door slowly.

"Looky, looky, we got human here. It got blood." says a demon. Nods from other demons go towards the man.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Suddenly, Red catches the fresh blood scent in the distance. He freezes and sniffs the air, trying to pinpoint where it is coming from.

"I smell blood." he whispers.

"What?" asks Cloud, standing up from a short rest.

"I smell a human as well along with blood. But this scent smells more familiar." Red says as he follows its scent trail.

"Yo, Cloud, go follow Red, I'll stay here." Calls Barret. Cloud nods and follows Red.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The man grunts as he hits the wall and it looks like a dead end. He then picks up a stone and throws it at the demons.

"Back off!" yells the man. The demons laugh as they walk toward him. A demon raises its hand and laughs, "Die, human." The man gasps and shields his arms over him. Just then he hears cry of battle from some strangers. Demons lunged at strangers then being spanked real badly. They crashed into the ground while they scream.

"AHHHHHH! Ugh!" yell demons. Then they fall to the ground dead, one by one. The man slowly opens his eyes and sees a man and lion-type standing there.

"W-who are you! What do you want!" yells the man. Cloud realizes the familiar voice from the man. He slowly walks over to the man and looks at him.

"You...you can't be alive! You died in the crater! I killed you!" screams Cloud as he again raises his buster sword.

"What? What are you talking about? What crater? Who are you!" yells the man. Cloud blinks when he hears this; the man doesn't know him? How is that possible? He pauses a moment, holding his buster sword over the man.

"Hold on," Red paws up toward the man, "He is not the same as Sephiroth that we fought. His scent is completely different from Sephiroth. Jenova smell like a rotted corpse...this man is almost completely human...with, some dragon." Red's eyes widen in shock.

"What?" Cloud stammers, unsure of himself, "You're not Sephiroth, are you?"

"Who is Sephiroth? I don't know who he is. I-I don't know who I am." Says the man.

Cloud recognizes something on Sephiroth as he calls him. He kneels down and looks over Sephiroth's neck. "...! This can't be!" Cloud mutters, shocked again, as he holds the necklace.

"What?" asks Red, confused as he looks over the necklace.

"This is the Talisman of the Dragon! That only the REAL Sephiroth wore. Why didn't I notice this before! I remember when we fell down from the broken bridge. He showed up with no necklace." Cloud explained.

"What...you mean this man is actually the real Sephiroth and we fought a clone!" asks Red, as shocked as Cloud. "Yes...if this man is the real Sephiroth then we fought a clone that Jenova used. She was the one that summoned meteor and things used by the clone." Explains Cloud.

"M-my name is Sephiroth?" asks the bewildered man.

"Yes, you are the Great Sephiroth, General of Shin-Ra." Cloud explained.

The flashback hits Sephiroth. He suddenly remembers that he became a general for Shin-Ra, and that he worked in Junon for long time until the bridge collapsed under him. The flashback ends.

"I-I remember the Shin-Ra but I can't remember why I was becoming a general. There have to be reasons." Says Sephiroth.

"Your memory has been lost since you fell down from the bridge?" asks Cloud.

"I don't know." Says Sephiroth.

"Let's bring him to town and bandage him up. Before he loses any more blood." Says Red.

"All right. I know our friends are gonna be shocked when they see him." says Cloud as he gets Sephiroth up and holds him for support. They walk over to the dump area where Barret and Marlene are. Once they approach them, Barret looks up and sees Sephiroth.

...To be continued. Chapter 2 coming up!


	2. He's baaaaack!

Chapter 2: He's baaaaaack!

Cloud and Red help the limping man over to the dump area where Barret and Marlene are. Once they approach them Barret looks up and sees Sephiroth.

"What the hell! Marlene, get out of here!" Yells Barret as his eyes lock on Sephiroth. He raises his gun-arm in a flash and levels it at Sephiroth.

"Hold on!" yelled Cloud, holding Sephiroth by his side. Barret walks toward Sephiroth, his gun-arm still pointed at Sephiroth's head.

"What, are you fuckin' out of your mind! Why the fuck you helping HIM!" Stammers Barret, reluctant to lower his arm.

"W-why does everyone want to kill me? I'm so lost." Says Sephiroth. Barret blinks when he hears this, "What the hell!" Cloud gently pushes Barret's gun-arm down and tries to explain what he could. About 15 minutes later, Barret finally understood Sephiroth's situation.

"You mean, we fought a clone the fuckin' whole time? Damn, that clone fooled us real good!" Barret frowns. Cloud nods,

"Yup. Now, we need take Sephiroth back to our town (Kalm) to stop this bleeding." Sephiroth covers his wound with a rag. Barret nods, feeling a shiver run down his spine as he takes Sephiroth's arm around him for support.

They walk over to the truck and, after gently setting Sephiroth down in the back, start the engine and drive away. Another flashback hits Sephiroth. He remembers about riding in a truck with 4 soldiers and heading for some town. He sat on the box and watched a young man with spiky, black hair who was excited over the mission. He talked to the other soldier to the left of the spiky, black haired young man, "Why don't you take your helm off? It might make you feel better." Said Sephiroth. The soldier nodded and removed his helm off to reveal his face. His hair was blond and just as spiky as the other. The flashback faded into a clouded haze.

"Hey...I think I remember you; you with the spiky blond hair." Says Sephiroth while he looks at Cloud. Cloud is surprised that Sephiroth remembers him from 7 years ago.

"What did you remember?" asked Cloud. Sephiroth told him what his remembrance had showed him of the past. Cloud nods, "Ah that would be Zack and I, Cloud. We were riding on the truck for a mission. You were asking me to remove my helm because I was having motion sickness from the long ride."

"Ah, yes. Zack and Cloud." Said Sephiroth, "But I still can't remember why we were on the mission." Cloud sighs; he knew it would take a long time to get Sephiroth's memory back. He figures that he should let Sephiroth figure it out by himself. He might find something to remind him from the past. They finally arrive in Kalm. They help Sephiroth out, but Cloud puts a black cloth on Sephiroth's head so people wouldn't recognize him around town. They walk over to Cloud and Tifa's house and open the door.

"Oh, Cloud, I didn't know that you were coming back so early!" says Tifa as she walks into the living room. Cloud gulps and doesn't know what to say to Tifa since her father was killed by Jenova...well, a clone called Sephiroth. He helped Sephiroth sit down on the couch.

"Don't uncover your face until I say so." Cloud muttered, thankful for putting the cloth over the injured man's face. Sephiroth nods softly. Cloud turns back to Tifa and tries to open his mouth to explain, but is interrupted by Tifa.

"Who is this?" she asks, a worried look on her face as she eyes the bandages on the injured leg. Cloud blinks at Tifa, struggling for the right words.

"Um, please don't be freak out or yell at me while I try to explain." he says slowly. Tifa looks confused, but patiently looks at him and waits for him to explain. Cloud knew Tifa would freak out when she heard his name. He sighs, "Tifa...this man is..." Tifa raised an eyebrow,

"Who is it hon?"

"...Sephiroth." Cloud finishes the sentence. Suddenly, Tifa screams and raises her fist toward the startled man.

"SEPHIROTH! YOU KILLED MY FATHER!" Cloud snatched off the dark cloth covering his face in time for Sephiroth to see an enraged Tifa dashing toward him. He quickly puts his arm up to shield himself, when Tifa is stopped short by a huge hand; she looks up at Barret holding her wrist,

"Tifa!" Barret struggled to remain calm. "This is not the Sephiroth you're thinking of. This man is the REAL Sephiroth, look at his necklace, and see if you remember it." He points at Sephiroth's neck when Sephiroth lowers his arm down. The savage snarl on her lips fades as she looks at the large medallion around Sephiroth's neck.

"This..." she puts her hand to her mouth and gasps, "The Talisman of the Dragon!" She kneels down next to Sephiroth, "I'm so sorry!" Sephiroth blinks, slowly, struggling to recognize the woman.

"You...you know me?" he looks at Tifa. Tifa blinks, finding it hard to believe he can't remember her from the past.

"You don't remember me?" asks Tifa. Sephiroth shakes his head, "No, I-I lost my memory and I don't know what's going on around here."

"Tifa, his memory may be come back by days or weeks or months;" Says Cloud, "He'll be back to normal again soon, and might be able to tell us what really happened after that bridge fell down." Tifa sighs, working to shake off the shock of seeing the man of her nightmares alive again.

"All right," Tifa stammers, her voice shaky, "He can stay here, but he won't able to leave the house since people around here know the Legend of Villain."

"T-thank you, ma'am." Said Sephiroth as he relaxed on the couch, shifting slightly to make his broken leg more comfortable. He had learned a lot about what happened between fake Sephiroth and Jenova...well, not the whole story. Cloud tells himself that he will tell Sephiroth the whole story once he has memory back...hopefully.

...To be continued. Chapter 3 coming up!


	3. His memory is back!

Chapter 3: His memory is back!

Sephiroth sleeps on the couch but it seems that he can't sleep very well with the pain in his leg. He turns over on his side, hoping to find a better position. The pain hits him like a brick, waking him up with a muffled whimper. He grabs his leg and holds it tenderly. He grunts and groans at same time.

"Damnit, I can't sleep with pain like this." Sephiroth muttered under his breathe.

"Sephiroth? Are you all right? I heard something out here, and thought you might be in pain." Says Tifa as she enters the living room from the kitchen. Sephiroth looks up slowly at Tifa. She wears a blue robe and holds a mug with coffee in it.

"Yes, I'd be all right if only this pain went away." Answers Sephiroth. Tifa frowned as she put the mug down on the small table next to the couch. Sephiroth chuckled, noticing the 'Gold Saucer' logo brightly written across the mug. She added more pillows behind Sephiroth's neck.

"Relax. Just lie back down and I'll fix your leg." Says Tifa as she sits down on the couch and takes Sephiroth's left leg in her lap. Sephiroth lies down and relaxes as Tifa told him to.

"This is going to hurt you a little more, but it will help you heal faster. All you have do is try to hold something." Said Tifa as she looked at Sephiroth. Sephiroth raises an eyebrow nervously.

"Uh, ok." He slows his breathing and holds tightly to the couch arm.

"Ready?" says Tifa as she holds his leg tenderly. Sephiroth nods and closes his eyes. CRACK! POP! CRACK! Sephiroth's mind floods with pain, gripping his hands tighter on the couch. "Ok, Sephiroth, it's over. That will help the bones set." Smiles Tifa. Sephiroth opens his eyes slowly and looks at Tifa, "That's all?" Tifa chuckles softly and nods, struggling not to giggle at the deep marks his hands left on the couch. 'Wow, he acted like a child trying to hide his pain while I fixed his leg. Actually, he was kinda cute when he was in pain.' She caught her thoughts starting to wander, 'What the hell am I thinking!' She blushes front of Sephiroth.

"Um, are you all right? Your face is getting red." Sephiroth looks at Tifa. She gasps and looks at him, "Um, uh, er, yes I'm fine. Well, um, my coffee is getting cold. You want some coffee?" she blushes again. 'Damnit! I'm blushing again!' thinks Tifa. Sephiroth nods. She gets up and puts Sephiroth's leg back on the couch carefully then goes into the kitchen.

Sephiroth looks around the living room. There are a lot of pictures of Cloud and Tifa on their wedding day, Cloud's friends, the Highwind, etc. Then one picture catches Sephiroth's eye. It is on the table next to him. He picks it up and takes a look at the picture. There is Zack and Tifa on it. It seems has been folded to hide someone else.

"This picture looks somehow familiar." says Sephiroth. Tifa come back from the kitchen and goes to sit on the chair near Sephiroth. Tifa see Sephiroth holding the picture.

"What picture you looking at?" asks Tifa. Sephiroth looks at Tifa, "This picture looks familiar. I just can't remember but this is really familiar." Said Sephiroth. Tifa notices the fold, "Oh, you can open its frame and pull it out." Sephiroth opens the frame and pulls it out then unfolds it. He stares at the silver-haired man that stands next to Zack with his Masamune on his back. A surge of memories envelops him.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Oh, Mr. Sephiroth!" yelled a man as he ran up to Sephiroth, "Can I take a picture of you? With your friends?" asks the panting man.

"Sure! That would be great!" Chuckled Zack as he walked up to the gate of the old mansion.

"I'd love to have a picture with Mr. Sephiroth!" Squealed an excited young Tifa as she walked up with Zack. Sephiroth sighs in defeat. He walks up with Zack and Tifa.

"Say Cheese!" says the man. The camera clicks, snaps, and whirs, "Thanks! I'll develop it in an hour!" says the man as he runs back to his house. Sephiroth sweats, drops his pose, and sighs, "Let's go...before someone takes another picture." He walks toward the path to Mt. Nibel. Tifa and Zack follow after him to the mountain. The flashback ends.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"I remember a man that took a picture of us in Nibelhiem," said Sephiroth as he looked at Tifa, "You were the young woman who was the guide for Mt. Nibel. There were 2 soldiers with us as well. We had mission on Mt. Nibel but what was mission the about?" he sighs. Tifa was speechless as she remembers this too. Later, Nibelhiem was set on fire by Jenova posing as Sephiroth. She looks down, avoiding Sephiroth's gaze, "Yes, I was leading us to Mt. Nibel, and then we crossed on the bridge and suddenly, it broke. We fell." Said Tifa. Sephiroth raised an eyebrow, "The bridge broke...we fell down...wait a minute." He suddenly remembers something about the bridge. Again the memories flooded his mind.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"This bridge leads to Mt. Nibel, right up there!" exclaims Tifa. Sephiroth walks up past her and checks out the bridge, "Is this safe to cross?" he looks at Tifa. Tifa nods, "Yes, this is a brand-new bridge. So it won't break!" A young Tifa exclaimed, smiling up towards the much taller man. Sephiroth had a bad feeling about this.

He decides to cross the bridge anyway, as there is no other choice, "Follow behind me." They almost reach on the top, and just then bridge begins to crack. Sephiroth instantly grabs a hold of the thick ropes of the bridge, "Hold on! The bridge is going down!" the bridge's ropes creaked and snapped before giving way entirely. He grabbed on a plank of wood and grabs Tifa's hand as a soldier grabs Tifa's leg. Zack grabs a soldier's leg and another soldier fell off.

The sound of cracking wood surrounds the bridge. Sephiroth looks up and yells, "Oh, shit! We're going to fall!" The remaining side of the bridge suddenly breaks free, dropping everyone into the chasm below. A soldier, Zack and Tifa grabbed onto an open edge and stopped their fall, and turned only to see Sephiroth falling past them and into the fog down the mountain. The flashback ends.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sephiroth starts suddenly as he comes out of his mental image. The short pause along with the sudden jump had scared the hell out of Tifa. She stands up alongside him.

"Sephiroth?" whispers Tifa. Sephiroth lies back down and pants in pain, "I remember I fell...all the way down," he looks up at Tifa, "I saw you guys were safe on the edge before I went into the fog down the mountain. I can't remember how I survived after that." Whispered a frightened Sephiroth.

Tifa sits back down next to him, "Yeah, we were safe on the edge. We were too shocked to do anything and froze when we saw you fall down." Tifa sighs, "Until you came to us with the limping leg. You seemed all right to us." Said Tifa. Sephiroth looks at her, puzzled.

"You scared the hell out of me because you started up so fast." Tifa chuckles softly.

"Oh, I'm sorry to scare you like that. But this flashback seemed too real to me." Sephiroth sighs then he leans back on the couch and relaxes, "I still can't remember out how I survived that fall." Tifa looks at Sephiroth, "You seem like have almost your whole memory back." Sephiroth looks up at Tifa, "Yes, my memory is back, except for everything about the mission and how I survived," he looks down, away from Tifa, "And by the way," Tifa blinks, "Hmm?"

"I'm glad to see you again. It's been a long time since we got split up when the bridge broke." Sephiroth chuckles, "7 years, isn't it?" Tifa is shocks to hear this, "Sephiroth, you're back! I don't know much, but I can help you to remember something about the mission. And yes, it's been 7 years." Sephiroth folded his arms across his chest, "It's good to be back...hey, where is Cloud?" Tifa looks up at Sephiroth, "He's at Ruins of Midgar, helping Barret clean it up. He was worried if I can handle by all myself with you. I told him I can handle it." Tifa giggles and Sephiroth chuckles softly. 

Sephiroth seems surprised to hear the words 'Ruins of Midgar'. He looks down at the floor, 'What happened to Midgar? I was out for 7 years. What the hell?' he was lost in the thought.

"Well, I'd better go change. I'll get the crutches to support your legs while you walk." She leaves the living room. Sephiroth ponders, 'Cloud, you better to explain things to me about what happened to Midgar and everything else.'

...To be continued. Chapter 4 coming up!


	4. Cloud's story and Sephiroth's story

Chapter 4: Cloud's story and Sephiroth's story

By the time night fell, Cloud, Red, Barret, Tifa and Sephiroth were sitting at the table and eating dinner. The five of them eyed the roast turkey hungrily before beginning their meal. Cloud cuts roast turkey and gives it to each others. Then they begins to eat.

"Paff fome katphup" muffled Cloud, his mouth full of turkey. Tifa elbows Cloud and makes her face toward Cloud, 'Shallow it then speak...' Sephiroth chuckles a bit as he remembers Zack is pretty much same what Cloud just did. He clears his throat while he finishes his meal.

Sephiroth looks at Cloud, "Cloud?" Cloud looks up, "Yeah?" Sephiroth clears his throat, "Will you explain to me what really happened after we split up?" Cloud is shocked and stares at Sephiroth. They fall into silence.

Silence...

"You...your memory came back?" said Cloud as he stared at Sephiroth. Sephiroth nods, "Aye, mind explaining what happened?" Cloud nods, "Ok, I'll start the story after we got split up." He began to tell the story about what happened after they split up at Mt. Nibel.

Hours later, Sephiroth sits there and is speechless after hearing about the fake Sephiroth and Jenova. He hasn't said a single word. Cloud sighs as he finishes, "That's everything up to this point. That's how Midgar was destroyed by the meteor." Sephiroth frowns, and sits with his eyes closes, and his arms folded.

Silence...

"That sick bastard!" said Sephiroth suddenly overcome with anger, "It was all Hojo's doing. No wonder he took blood from me to create this Jenova and a clone." Cloud stands up, "What!" Sephiroth opens his eyes, "I remember now...how I ended up in that chamber." Tifa looks at Sephiroth, "Could you tell us what happened?" Sephiroth nods, "Yes. Before we went on the mission." Sephiroth's listeners watched him carefully explain what he knew...

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sephiroth grew up in Shin-Ra buildings without knowing his own parents. Hojo had been examining Sephiroth and took a blood sample to mix with Jenova cells. He always put Sephiroth in the big glass containment pod and put him up against monsters against him to see if his strength had improved. Of course, he is inhuman however, he don't know much of his background yet.

Once Sephiroth was able to read, he snuck into Hojo's library to read top-secret files about Jenova and others. His hatred for Hojo grew after what he did to him by using his blood to create Jenova and a clone. Once he became a soldier in Junon, he learned that Mt. Nibel was the place where Jenova was stored. Three years later, he had become a general of Shin-Ra, and so was able to make plans for missions. He made a request to make trip to Mt. Nibel to check up on the Mako reactors. (He was lying, of course.)

He picked four soldiers, which were Cloud, Zack and the other two men. Then they headed for Mt. Nibel. They made it to the bridge and it broke. When they fell down, Cloud, Zack and Tifa grabbed the edge for their safely. Sephiroth fell and rolled on the wall to ground. But his white aura grew to cover him, the Talisman of the Dragon had saved him. Once the aura had faded, his body was weakened and couldn't move at all. Struggling to look around him, Sephiroth groaned and laid there to recover his strength.

Suddenly, someone put a rag to Sephiroth's mouth. Getting a glimpse of the person as they struggled, Sephiroth saw his attacker looked EXACTLY like himself! The look alike grinned evilly at Sephiroth as he passed out from the chloroform.

Sephiroth woke up slowly and groaned in a pain from the fall. He found himself in small cell. Peering around him, he noticed medical instruments and scientific tools. He began to take a step forward, but found that his limbs were tied with chains. He began to hear echoing footsteps getting closer.

"Hey! Let me go!" Growled the silver-haired man, glaring at the figure stepping through the door.

"Bwahaha! I won't let you go, my precious specimen!" said the man in a white coat. Sephiroth blinked as the man came into the light.

"Hojo! Why!" Sephiroth struggled against his bonds feebly. Hojo threw his head back in laugher at Sephiroth,

"You know why; I found out that you were going to destroy Jenova at Mt. Nibel! Luckily my precious clone cut the rope on the bridge to stop you. Bwahaha!" Sephiroth was shocked! How the hell did Hojo know that he was going to kill Jenova?

"So what will you do to me this time?" asked Sephiroth; Hojo chuckled softly before replying.

"I've grown tired of your meddling, and with my clone around, nobody will miss you..." Hojo half-muttered to himself, "I think it's time I put an end to you." said Hojo as he inserted a needle into Sephiroth's left shoulder. Sephiroth grunted.

"You sick bastard!" he said. He felt his body weaken and his eyes felt sleepy. "I'll...kill...yo...u." Sephiroth fell sleep. Hojo threw his head back with laughter as the flashback faded.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"That fucker!" yelled Barret as he stood up. Sephiroth sighs,

"He ruined my life, my identity...now, I cannot go out since people know the legend of villain." Tifa bites her lower lip,

"You know what?" Sephiroth looks up at Tifa. "You could just change your clothes and have your hair cut. You know, nobody expects to see you around anyway." Suggested Tifa. Sephiroth blinks,

"Cut my hair? Er..." Tifa giggles, eyeing the long silver hair flowing down Sephiroth's shoulders.

"Yes, silly. People know what you look like right now. Only if you change like I'm suggesting, they wouldn't know you." Sephiroth sighs, "Fine, fine..." Cloud suddenly remembers about Hojo when they had the battle with him at Midgar.

"Oh, one thing that you should know." Sephiroth turns to Cloud, "What is it?" Cloud inhales then exhales, "When we had the battle with Hojo at Midgar, he did mention that he had a son. We couldn't figure out who he was..." The flashback begins.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Why! Why do you do this!" Angrily Cloud. Hojo mocked at Cloud, "Always asking, 'Why Why Why...'! Hmmm, you could make a good scientist." He looked at the Mako Meter, "The energy level is...still 83. This is taking too long...my son needs my help. That's all."

Cloud gasped and shocked, "...your...son!" Hojo threw his head back in laughter.

"HE doesn't know it though. (Cackles) How would Sephiroth react if he found out that I was his father! He always...always looked down at me. Haaa---haaa!" Cloud blinked at Hojo.

"Sephiroth was your SON?" shallow voice from Cloud. Vincent blinked and growled.

"I offered the woman who bore my child to the Jenova Project. I injected the Jenova cells into Sephiroth before he was even born." Hojo cackled. Vincent drew his gun and aimed at Hojo.

"You bastard..." Vincent growled.

"You are doing all this...to make it up for Sephiroth? Because you treated him so badly..." Cloud aimed his buster sword at Hojo.

"Heeeeheeeheeee! No no. It's my GREED as a scientist!" Hojo got ready for them to being a battle. Vincent frowned at Hojo.

"...I was wrong...I should have never punished myself for Jenova Project...it was you HOJO!" He screamed. Hojo cackled and walked closer to Cloud's team.

"I was...hic! Science and Greed took over me. Just a while ago...I injected myself with Jenova cells...heeheeheeeee...the result? Heeheehee! I'll show you right now!" Hojo transformed into a monster. The Battle began. Then flashback ends.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sephiroth frowns and can't believe what he has heard. Cloud sighs, "I'm sorry but I thought you needed to know." Sephiroth growls in his throat,

"I hated him all my life. I never knew that he was MY father! I wish I would never have been born! So none of this would have happened!" He raises his head, "What about my mother? I know that Jenova can't be my mother since she was a demon."

"Lucreica was your mother." The room's door opens as a hooded man steps through, his heavy boots thud against the wooden floorboards.

Cloud blinks and stares at a man in a red cloak, "Vincent!"

"Lucreica was my...mother? Was she in a white coat with Hojo on that picture?" asks Sephiroth. Vincent walks up to the table where everybody sits and nods. Sephiroth's face softens with the realization.

"She died to give birth to you since Hojo inserted Jenova cells into her body while she was pregnant." answered Vincent. A pained look flashes across Sephiroth's face.

"That bastard!" He stands up with the help of a crutch, "I'm done with this life, the name Sephiroth died with that clone!" he limps with the crutches out of the room. Then he goes to his new bedroom.

...To be continued. Chapter 5 coming up!


	5. Sephiroth's new looks

Chapter 5: Sephiroth's new looks

Sephiroth sits by the window and thinks about what Cloud told him. He stares at the stars of the night and the sky seems to shine, despite the moons absence. He thinks about Jenova, the cloned Sephiroth, Hojo, The Weapons, and Meteor. 'How did Jenova get the black materia in the first place? I know that I put all my power into protecting the temple and black materia itself...' he frowns.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Vincent and Cloud sit alone at the table, the others either gone to bed or started on their way home."Vincent..." says Cloud as he looks at him, "How did you know that our Sephiroth is the real one?" Vincent looks down; it was a topic he never wanted to think of again.

"I know I haven't told you guys about my past, including Sephiroth. But I think I should tell you the story now." Cloud raises an eyebrow and folded his arms across his chest, leaning back to get more comfortable.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

At night, two guards carried Sephiroth into the small jail and locked him up, binding him with chains. Vincent hides on the roof of the Lab, watching the guards step back outside the cell from the barred skylight above. 'Sephiroth? What the hell is he doing here? Why have they locked him up like this?' thought Vincent as he watched Sephiroth begin to stir.

Sephiroth grunts as he wakes up and found himself in Jail. He looked around the room that looked like the Lab room. He heard footsteps sound in the distance.

"Hey! Let me go!" yelled Sephiroth as he stared at someone else entering the room.

"Bwhahaha...Nope, I won't let you go, my precious specious!" said the man in the white coat.

"Hojo! Why!" screamed a shocked Sephiroth. Vincent slipped around to an adjacent window where Hojo and Sephiroth wouldn't see him. He stared at Hojo with glowing red eyes, 'That bastard...after what he did to me! Now he is going to do something to Sephiroth!'

The thick walls of the cell, and the distance between them made it impossible for Vincent to hear the conversation inside. Hojo finished talking to the chained man and inserted the needle into Sephiroth's shoulder. Vincent curses under his breath, it would be much harder to rescue an unconscious person. Climbing to the next window, Vincent peers through the skylight; squinting to see into the dark room. He discovers that the room below him is the prison's security center. Quickly digging his claw into the bar-less window, he silently cut a hole in the glass just large enough for him to slip through. Sneaking his way into the room, Vincent looks around for a way to unlock Sephiroth's chains and hopefully open a way out of there. Seeing a series of cell numbers listed next to buttons aligned down neat rows, he struggled to decide which room Sephiroth was being held in.

"Never was the subtle type," Whispered Vincent, as he slides his gun out from a holster within his cloak. A barrage of bullets slammed into the control panel, sending a wave of sparks out from the broken electronics.

**"Attention all security personnel: A malfunction was detected in cell #5.** **Please** **assist in the lockdown of the cell #5 complex."**

The speaker blares from the hallway, Vincent sighs.

"Wasn't quite what I had in mind." He mutters, as a rumble of footsteps begins echoing closer down the hall. He leaps up the cut window and pulls himself back through.

"Humph, always when I'm gloating..." Hojo says as he looks back at Sephiroth in the chamber, he turns and waves over to some guards marching through the hallway. "Boys, take this prisoner and prepare him for a transfer to Midgar." The guards nod and march down the hallway as Vincent watches them from the roof. The flashback ends.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Vincent can't lift his eyes off the floor, "That's how I knew about Sephiroth all along. I knew he wasn't the real one the whole time."

"Why didn't you tell us? We would have helped Sephiroth get out of there!" Cloud stares in shock at Vincent.

Vincent turns around and walks to the door before pausing. "I'm sorry." He leaves and vanishes into the shadows.

"Wait, Vincent!" yelled Cloud but Vincent was already gone. Tifa coughs as she walks into the room to clean the plates off the table. She looks up at Cloud,

"Why don't you take those black leather clothes in the closet and give them to Sephiroth?"

"Fine..." Cloud sighs as he walks into his room to pick the black leather clothes up. He walks back into the hallway and knocks on the door.

Sephiroth starts up as hears the knock from the door, "Come in." Cloud enters and drops the black leather clothes on the bed, "Here are some clothes. We're going to bed; hope you like them." Sephiroth nods his thanks. Cloud stands there a moment, then leaves the room.

Sephiroth looks at black leathers clothes lying on the bed from sitting by the window. He sighs as he turns around and watches the night's dark sky.

In the morning, the sun rises high into the sky. The birds sing as the fly over the town. The suns rays send a shiny gleam through the window and make the silver hair of Sephiroth seem to glow. Sephiroth opens his eyes slowly and yawns. He blinks a few times and grabs the crutches to get up. He walks to the bed and picks the black leather clothes up.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A loud yawning sound came from Cloud as he sat sleepily on the table. Tifa walks past him and gently bonks his head, "Wake up, Sleepyhead!" She giggles.

"I'm awake, I'm awake!" says Cloud as he lowers his head to the table. Tifa snickers and starts cooking breakfast. The footstep sound from the hallway, coming toward the kitchen. Cloud's head is still lying on the table, and he doesn't see the person who enters.

"Hey Sephiroth." Tifa smiles as Sephiroth walks through the door. Her eyes slide from his feet to his face slowly. The dark leather boots he wore were made to cover up to his knees, which blended smoothly into the leather pants he wore. A ebony colored shirt and coat along with black leather gloves were wrapped around him. The silvery buckle on his belt and short metal studs on his gloves were the only change in the dark colors he wore.

"Wow, you look good in that uniform!" says Tifa as she looks at Sephiroth. Sephiroth smiles as Cloud looks up at Sephiroth slowly; "Nice..." then his head falls down on the table again with thud.

"After having breakfast, I'll cut your hair!" smiles Tifa as she sets breakfast on the table and bonks Cloud's head to wake him up again. Sephiroth walks over and sits down to eat breakfast. Tifa sits down and studies Sephiroth's hair.

"I should tell you guys about my real name..." says Sephiroth as he looks at Cloud. Tifa stops eating and raises an eyebrow.

(A/N: I don't know his real name so I made up his middle and last name.)

"My real name is Sephiroth Webb Valeria. I know Shin-Ra has files that read 'Sephiroth Shawn Shinzau.' So I decided that you guys are going to call me 'Valeria' from now on." Explains Sephiroth.

"Sephiroth Webb Valeria...sounds like a nice name." says Tifa. She glares at Cloud, her face saying 'our child is gonna have a name like his name!' Cloud scratches his head, "Er...I didn't know about that. I knew some people called you Mr. Shinzau in Junon...I would feel a little strange calling you 'Valeria.' But I'll try to do my best."

Tifa stands up and cleans the table, then puts the dishes into the sink. She picks up scissors from the drawer and waves with them playfully at Sephiroth. He sighs as he moves a chair away from the table. Tifa walks up behind Sephiroth and smiles. She feels the softness of Sephiroth's hair as she brushes it. Cloud watches them, his eyes still half closed as he doses off.

30 minutes later...

There are silver hairs spread around the chair that Sephiroth sits in. His hair is much shorter than before, the silvery strands are cut just above his shoulders. Tifa brushes his hair once again and feels that his hair is softer than before! She stops brushing his hair as she picks up a mirror to show it to him. He takes the mirror and views himself with it. He looks like a different man.

"So, what do you think?" Says Tifa, holding up a mirror for Sephiroth to see himself with. "I think you look handsome that way!" giggles Tifa. Cloud raises an eyebrow when he hears this.

"This will do. It feels much lighter with short hair!" laughs Sephiroth. Tifa nods as someone knocks at the door, "Come in!" Someone enters and walks over to the kitchen.

"Damn! You look like a fuckin' different man!" Barret's jaw drops as he first sees him. Red nods, "Indeed." He stands by Barret's side.

"Gee, thanks..." Sephiroth smiles, "By the way, my name is Valeria from now on." Barret nods,

"Awight, Valeria." Sephiroth grabs the crutch and gets up,

"I'm going out for some fresh air, I've been staying here for weeks." Tifa nods,

"You should be fine now, since people won't recognize you." Sephiroth nods as he leaves the house.

...To be continued. Chapter 6 coming up!


	6. Sephiroth's new enemy

Chapter 6: Sephiroth's new enemy

Key: xxxxx change scene

Sephiroth walks around the town, with the help of his crutches, and watches the children playing around him. He smiles at them and walks through them toward the outskirts of Kalm. He hears a shout nearby as he walks. He turns around and sees a group of men shouting at an elderly man.

"Hey, silver man! Do me a favor… get out of this town or I'll kill you!" Yells a red-haired man with dark sunglasses resting on his head.

"Why…? I've lived in this town for years and you want me to just leave? No thank you sir!" the middle-age silver-haired man replied. A bald man with sun glasses on stares at the red-haired man, he wasn't expecting this kind of reaction.

"Idiot, we're going to kill you unless you leave!" yells the red-haired man. The men shout toward the middle-age silver-haired man. Sephiroth sighs and walks toward them, stooping to pick up a stone on the way. He casually lets it fly toward the red-haired man's head.

(Bonk!)

They stop and turn around to see Sephiroth there.

"Run, old man!" yells Sephiroth. The old man nods his thanks and runs away. The red-haired man glowers at Sephiroth, "You! We were about to kill him but you made us to lose him!" Sephiroth smiles at him,

"I suppose saying sorry wouldn't help?" Sephiroth said innocently, counting the number of men. The leader of the group spoke again;

"We kill all people who have silver hair, the same that Sephiroth had!" the red-Haired man says.

"Only silver haired people? I'd think some hair dye would be easier, but if you want kill me, go ahead…" Sephiroth continues to smile.

"Are you mocking me! I killed Sephiroth myself! Me, Reno, an ex-Turk for Shin-Ra!" Reno yells.

"Well, I heard Sephiroth was defeated by Cloud and his team. Your ass was wiped out by Cloud's team too…" Sephiroth replies. Reno's eyes widen, "How did you…Never mind! KILL HIM!" shouts Reno. The four men advance toward Sephiroth, "You can't run away from us with that leg," Smiles Reno, eyeing the bandages along his leg.

"Well, try me…" Sephiroth stretched his arms casually, eager to get a fight started.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Cloud raises an eyebrow, "Oh, crap…I forgot to tell Sephiroth about Reno and his men."

"Oh no!" Tifa gasped, her hand covering her mouth in shock.

"Why don't we go find him before Reno does?" Red pawed into the room after hearing Tifa's gasp.

"Gotta hurry," says Cloud as they leave the house and start to search around the town. Red sniffs the scent Sephiroth has left, "Hey, I found his scent here, follow me." They follow Red toward the area where Sephiroth and Reno are fighting. Cloud stops and looks around,

"I hear fighting nearby…" they hear a bunch of men screams and groans on a small alley behind some houses.

"Yo, I think they're behind this house." Says Barret as he points past the house. Cloud nods as they walk past the house and find Sephiroth and Reno.

"HOLY SHIT!" gasps a shocked Barret, as if he has seen a ghost. They see a bunch of men are laying unconscious around the alley, Sephiroth leans on his crutch, carefully wiping some blood off the metal studs on his gloves. He finishes with a sigh and hobbles toward the red-haired man.

"Feh, what a moron…" Says Sephiroth as he digs his crutch into Reno's shoulder, "Never, ever mess with silver haired people again. If you do, we'll do this all over again, but you won't get up." Reno groans and barely nods at Sephiroth.

"Sep…Valeria! You all right?" Cloud helps support Sephiroth's shoulder, "Yeah, I'm fine. My leg is a little hurt again, but that's all," he turns to Reno,

"Reno, get your men and get out of this town. Think about what I just said…" he moves the crutch away from Reno's shoulder. Cloud looks back toward Reno and watches him get up. Reno helps some of his men to get moving and they hobble out of the alley.

"I'm going to Ruins of Midgar. Would you mind taking me there?" asks Sephiroth.

Red paws up to Sephiroth, "I'll go with you. In case Reno comes back."

"We'll give you a ride," Says Cloud. "We were going back there anyway to continue the reconstruction."

"Yo, Cloud, take my truck, I have to stay here to join Marlene's party like I promised her." Barret searches his pockets a moment before tossing a set of keys to Cloud.

"Thanks, Barret." He turns to Tifa, "Think we can make some lunch for the ride there Love?" Tifa looks worriedly at Sephiroth's leg a moment.

"Yes Cloud, I can whip up some sandwiches while you get those bandages changed on Valeria."

Tifa changed the Sephiroth's bandages and made some sandwiches for those boys. She gaves a bag of sandwiches and extra bandages to them before they leaves. Cloud gives Tifa a kiss and waves goodbye at her. Tifa smiles and yells while the boys hops in the truck and drive away; "Be safe!"

As they drive down the road to Midgar; a huge tree suddenly falls to the road. Cloud's eyes widen as he slams on the brake, struggling to keep control as it screeches and does a small spin into the tree.

CRASH!

They groan as they look at the damaged truck, a large dent in the tire-well has stopped the rear tires from spinning.

"Who the hell did this?" says Sephiroth as he looks at the huge tree splintered in the dirt road. "No way, we can't move this tree." Red walks up and sniffs a moment along the roots.

"I'm picking up a scent here." Says Red as the others look around.

"Enjoy your little crash into the tree, eh?" says a voice behind them. Sephiroth spins around and sees the red-haired man.

"Reno, you again!" growls Sephiroth. Cloud pulls his buster sword out and levels it at Reno. Red growls at Reno and crouches low, ready to pounce.

"Well, I thought your face was _very _familiar to me when we first met." says Reno as he walks toward Sephiroth.

"I've been getting that a lot lately." Sephiroth looked around, trying to find anyone else hiding along the road.

"I know who you are…because your voice, your eyes glow green with mako, the way you fight..." Reno takes a good look at Sephiroth, "You're Sephiroth!" Reno raises his electro-prod and aims at Sephiroth, "Even if you're not, you're dead."

"Hmm, I don't know who Sephiroth is, my name is Valeria and I guess I might happen to look like him." smirks Sephiroth.

"Yeah? Bullshit!" Reno shouts as he gets ready to shoot his electro-prod toward Sephiroth, but suddenly Cloud dashes forward, slashing Reno's electro-prod in half.

"KILL THEM! KILL THEM!" Shouts Reno as his men jump and run toward them.

"Stand back, I'm going to summon Knights of the Round!" says Red as Cloud and Sephiroth nod and step backwards.

"Knight of the Round, I summon you to attack them!" shouts Red as his red materia begins to glow, and 15 knights pop up to surround Reno and his men.

"Erm, um, uh…" stammers Reno as he looks up at the fifty foot tall knights while they look back down on him. Rude grabs Reno's arm and pulls him away from the Knights of the Round. The Knights of the Round jump and slash Reno's men into pieces. Reno and Rude grab their motorcycles and ride away. A voice from Reno; "NEXT TIME WE WILL BRING YOU DOWN, SEPHIROTH!" Sephiroth watches Knights of the Round rip Reno's men to pieces, but they miss Reno and Rude as they escape. He scratches his head; "Knights of the Round….where the hell did you get that from?"

"From a materia vein in a small island." Red answers.

"That materia is pretty rare I must say! But its seems to have rid us of Reno's men. Problem is, they know me as Sephiroth." Says Sephiroth. Knights of the Round finish their job and go back into the red materia. Red puts it away into his bracelet.

"Well, only Reno and Rude know you but millions of people don't. So don't worry about it. Most people know that Reno and Rude are the most pathetic Turks in the world." Cloud scratches his head as he chuckles. Red walks up to the wrecked truck and sighs,

"Barret is not going to be happy about this…"

"Oh, don't worry about it, we'll tell him it was Reno. Well, Midgar is over there, about 5 miles away from here." says Cloud as he walks. Sephiroth joins along and Red as well.

...To be continued. Chapter 7 coming up!


	7. Sephiroth's past

Chapter 7: Sephiroth's Past

Sephiroth, Cloud and Red walk on their own feet all the way to Midgar. Once they get close to Midgar, Sephiroth just stares over the destroyed buildings, cars, machines, etc.

"Damn, Meteor destroyed this place horribly…" he says as he looks over the destroyed junk.

"Yeah, we couldn't do anything with meteor. Only the Lifestream stopped it from taking out everything, but the impact killed millions of people who lived here anyway." Said Cloud. Sephiroth could not believe what he saw. He sighed as he walked over what was left. Cloud walks over the old Shin Ra building and looks over the papers that are scattered all over the ground. Red walks over the destroyed stores. Sephiroth walks into what was Old Sector 6 and notices something that looks familiar. The big sign lying on the ground that reads HONEYBEE INN. He walks closer and stares at the old Honeybee Inn building that has been destroyed.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

8 years ago…

Sephiroth and Zack walk through the stores until Zack notices the Honeybee Inn on his left side.

"Hey Seph! Let's go to Honeybee Inn! Beautiful ladies are in there!" exclaimed Zack as he poked Sephiroth.

"I'm not interested in that. You can go ahead by yourself, though." Says Sephiroth as he tries to walk away from Zack.

"Oh, no ya don't! Come on, don't be shy!" Zack chuckles as he grabs Sephiroth and pushes him toward Honeybee Inn.

"Zack…don't." Sephiroth frowns at Zack.

"Hey boys! Want to enter Honeybee Inn for one night! You two will see the most beautiful ladies in every room!" the man points at the door of the Honeybee Inn.

"Sure, that would be great!" Zack smiles.

"Only perverts go there…I'm not one of them. I'm outta of here." Sephiroth scoffed as he turned around and tried to walk away. Zack grabs him again and pulls him back.

"He will join as well! Don't worry, Sephiroth is my bitch...and...(whisper) He's a virgin too." Zack chuckles as he pushes Sephiroth into Honeybee Inn. The man sweat dropped off his brow in thick beads.

"Zack…" Sephiroth frowned at Zack.

"Oh, hi boys! Come in. I'll show you two to your rooms!" a girl in bee uniform says as she guides Sephiroth and Zack to two different rooms, "Which side are you two gonna take?"

"I'll take the left room and Sephiroth will take the right room!" Zack smiles and winks at a girl in the bee uniform.

"Very well." The girl dressed as the giant bee smiles and unlocks the door to let Zack in. Zack walked in the room and looked back at Sephiroth, "This is gonna be fun!" Sephiroth rolls his eyes and sighs. Zack closes the door and giggles sounded from the room. The girl in the bee uniform guides Sephiroth to the right room and unlocks the door, "Here's your room. Have a nice night." Sephiroth nods and heads into the room. He looks around the room decked out with the huge hot tub, big bed, big music box, and no windows…he blinks, 'No windows? Damnit…I guess I'm gonna be stuck here until morning…' He climbs into the bed and tries to relax.

Zack was extremely excited and couldn't wait for the single lady, or maybe LADIES, that would come in to pleasure him. He whistles a little tune as he walks around and checks out the hot tub. Then he hears the heavy breathing coming from the hallway. The door suddenly opens and closes and the heavy panting is heading toward Zack. He turns around and sees five men stand in front of him.

"Huff, huff, we're here to have exercise with you! We'll get in the hot tub to make you feel good and feel stronger!" a man in a black silk shirt smiles at Zack.

"Wait a minute! What do you mean that you gonna make me feel good!" Zack stared at the man in black silk shirt.

"We'll show you how this gonna be." The man in black silk shirt smiles then grabs Zack to hold him. The other four men take Zack's clothes off, leaving only his boxer. They push Zack into the hot tub, and then they hopped in with him.

(A/N: Hehehe, Cloud did this the same way so he could get the thong. Poor him…)

Sephiroth opened his eyes when he heard the loud screams coming from the left room. He looks at the wall and hears Zack's voice. 'He screamed like a school girl…' Sephiroth stiffed a laugh, 'Good thing that I'm not with those famous five men…'

"SEPHIROTH! HELP! Get your hands off me! I'm not fuckin' GAY!" Zack screamed.

"Nope." Sephiroth called back through the thin wall. "Have fun with the five men." Sephiroth laughed then he closed his eyes.

"WHAT! FUCK!" Zack pant heavily. Sephiroth fell sleep and ignored Zack all through the night. In the morning, Sephiroth got off the bed and walked out the room and knocked on left door, "Zack? You're up?" He waited a moment and stepped into the room.

Zack was lying face-down on the floor. He had almost never slept that night because of the trauma that being "pleasured" by the five men brought him. He was very groggy in the morning. Sephiroth sighs as he sees Zach's unconscious body, still only wearing boxer, he starts to laugh.

"Heh, Zack, get your ass up. You had enough fun with the Wonderful Five men last night. Come on." He turned around and left. Zack groaned and stood up slowly. He leaned against the wall to steady himself as he hobbled out.

'Curse those five men!' Thought Zack."Nothing happened to you last night, Seph?" He asked as he looked at Sephiroth.

"Nope…I slept peacefully. Have fun with the Wonderful Five?" Sephiroth asks as he begins to chuckle.

"Shut up! Next time, I'll get ladies that will make you go crazy!" Zack says mockingly to Sephiroth. Sephiroth laughs,

"Ha, ha, no you won't. You're always telling people 'Sephiroth is my bitch' and that makes them think that you're gay…Ah ha! No wonder the Wonderful Five thought you were gay!" Sephiroth chuckles as he starts to walk away from Zack.

"Sephiroth…I am NOT gay! I have a girlfriend, goddamnit!" Zack growls at Sephiroth but Sephiroth was already gone, "Wait Seph!" he yells as he catches up with Sephiroth.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Back to present...

Sephiroth smiles as he remembers Zack and his little plan to make him have fun with ladies, while trying to get a little fun out of it himself, but failing as usual. He walks past the Honeybee Inn toward Sector 5. He notices the destroyed church up ahead. He decides to check it out. He walks into the destroyed church and looks around. He finds several flowers on the ground as he walks around. He suddenly remembers something from his past, when he was only a child.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

16 years ago...

A child runs toward the flowers on the ground, and then she kneels down and smells a flower. Sephiroth walked up behind her and smiled,

"Like it, Aeris?" He asked, looking down.

"Yeah! I love it!" exclaims Aeris as she picked the flower. Sephiroth kneels down and looks at Aeris. Aeris was only eight years old when the Turks kidnapped her away from her adopted mother. Sephiroth took care of her from the time he took her out of Hojo's lab and ran away to keep her safe. He couldn't stand the sight of Aeris in the big glass containers, the same ones Hojo kept his monsters in. Aeris was only a child in Sephiroth's eyes, and didn't deserve that treatment. For Hojo, Aeris was merely a guinea pig. He thought Aeris might be the key to the future. Sephiroth thought it was very wrong to treat a child like this, no matter what might be gained from it. He was sixteen years old at the time.

"Hey, Sephy, what this?" She asks as she points at the strange white aura coming out of a flower. Sephiroth looked at it, "Ah, that's my special flower. You see, if something happens to me, this white flower would wither away slowly. But I'm right here with you, doing just fine, so the flower will keep glowing its white aura."

"Oooh. It is beautiful!" Aeris smiles and feels the warmth coming from the flower with its white aura. Sephiroth smiles at Aeris, "It is yours. This is between me and you. It will always be special flower just like you are will always be special to me." Aeris smiles and jumps up to hug Sephiroth.

"Well! You again, Young Sephiroth! I want Aeris back…now." Says a man with long black as he walks in.

"Never. I don't want Hojo to touch her, ever." Growled Sephiroth as he stood up. He picked Aeris up and held her, ready to dash away if he had to.

"I don't want to hurt her either but an order is an order. Hand her over." Says the man with the long black hair. He steps closer to Sephiroth.

"Back off, Tseng!" says Sephiroth as he takes a retreating step back toward the door behind the flowers. He watches Tseng's eyes blink, then opens and closes the door hugging Aeris close to him. Then jumps high into the roof. Tseng runs into the room and looks up at Sephiroth. Sephiroth hops out of the hole and runs away. Tseng sighed and gestured to a troop of guards, "Boys, find him! And don't hurt Aeris, just… just bring her back as well." The guards nodded and ran off through the door.

Five days later…

The guards had searched all through the slums to find Sephiroth and Aeris, yet were ordered back to the Shin Ra building to inform Hojo of their failure.

"Humph! Sephiroth won't be away too long.." Hojo giggled as he flipped through stacks of papers in front of the guards. The guards looked each others then shrugged and left Hojo's office.

"Sephiroth…you should have remembered that you couldn't live without the serum that I've been giving you, I bet that you've become weakened and ill by now…" Hojo giggled.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sephiroth holds Aeris's hand as they walk through the town of Midgar. His feet start to feel heavier as his eyes flutter. He feels sweat bead all over his body as he weakens. Aeris gasps and struggles to help him keep his feet as he slumps forward onto the ground.

"Sephy!" Aeris cries as she tries to shake Sephiroth. However, the days spent avoiding the Hojo's thugs had gotten them steadily closer to Aeris's home. The woman who saw Sephiroth lying on the ground ran out of the house and toward Sephiroth.

"Mister, are you all right? Mister?" the woman asks in a panic as she looks over Sephiroth. Aeris looks up at the woman, "Mommy!" she squeals, holding tight to Sephiroth's hand.

"Aeris! He saved you from Shin Ra building?" the woman dashes forward and hugs Aeris.

"Yeah, yeah! He got me out of that horrible glass thingy!" Aeris tries to explain her time spent in the glass chamber. The woman sighs in relief then looks at Sephiroth.

"Aeris, go get a wagon to carry him into our house." The woman tells Aeris as she nods and runs off to find a wagon. The woman lays her hand on Sephiroth's forehead and feels the heat and sweat that seem to flood from his body.

"Oh, my…he has a horrible fever! He needs a cold bath to bring his temperature down." The woman says. Aeris comes running back with a wagon and pulls it up next to Sephiroth. The woman grunts as she lifts a moaning Sephiroth onto the wagon then pulls it back into her house. The woman struggles to carry Sephiroth into their bathroom and helps him lie in the tub. After a few minutes of laying in the cool water, Sephiroth wakes up with a gasp. "Mister?" Whispers the woman anxiously. Sephiroth shivers and looks up at the woman.

"A…Aeris? Is…is she okay…?" the woman smiles and nods. Sephiroth sighs in relief. "I…I'm cold…" Sephiroth shivers in his cold bath. The woman looks over Sephiroth,

"You have a terribly high fever! This cold bath should cool you down for a bit." Sephiroth nods. Later, once he had stopped shivering from the fever and now shivered from the cold, he was moved to the guest room and laid down on the bed. The woman removes all Sephiroth's clothes, except his boxers. Then she lays a blanket over him. Sephiroth falls asleep within minutes.

3 days later…

Sephiroth feels much better thanks to the care of Aeris's mother, the effects of his addiction to Hojo's serum seem to have faded over the last 8 days. The weakened state he was in let Sephiroth's body break off it's dependency of the drug. Sephiroth walks down to the living room and finds Aeris and her mother sitting at the table.

"Thank you very much for all that you've done for me, Elmyra. I have to go back to the Shin Ra building. Don't worry, they won't find Aeris here, since they don't know this is Aeris's home." Says Sephiroth.

"Oh, no problem. Thank you for bringing Aeris back to me. I'll keep her safe here for the time being." Elmyra replies. Aeris slips off her chair and runs to Sephiroth. Sephiroth kneels down and hugs her.

"Aeris…will you take care of your mom while I'm gone?" Sephiroth smiles as he looks down at the small little girl in front of him. Aeris nods seriously,

"Yeah, I will! Can you visit us later?"

"I'll try, if I can. I have to go back to the Shin Ra building for now though. You will be safe here, and don't forget to water the flowers for me." Sephiroth chuckles. Aeris smiles, "I will!" she says as she hugs Sephiroth tighter, with small tears forming in her little eyes. Sephiroth sighs and lets Aeris go. He stands up slowly and leaves Aeris's house. He looks back at the house and sees Aeris waving through the window. Sephiroth smiles and walks away.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Back to the present…

Sephiroth stares the flowers for almost an hour as he remembers Aeris when she was a child. He notices the flower that has the white aura coming out of it is much smaller than before. He kneels down and looks over the flower.

_Aeris…I'm sorry that I haven't visited you since I left you. Forgive me, Aeris. I haven't had a chance to see you since Hojo put me in jail. Damn him. Cloud told me that you were alive and were with Cloud's team. You also saved the planet by pleading to the Lifestream. I'm so proud of you, Aeris. I wish I could see you again. _

As Sephiroth stares at white flower, he hears a strange sound moving toward him. A cold wind blows through the broken sections of the roof and down through his silver hair. He looks up and around, sensing something's wrong.

"_Sephiroth_…"

Sephiroth gasps as he spins around to look but no one is there, he looks around wildly looking for the speaker.

"_Sephiroth…I forgive you_…"

Sephiroth is shocked to hear the voice. He knows that voice from the past.

"Aeris!" he looks around.

"_Don't worry, Sephiroth…I'm glad that you are all right and friends with Cloud_…"

"Aeris…Why? Why did you let Jenova kill you?" Sephiroth chokes back his emotion and stares down at the floor.

"_That's what I do…you told me a story about a scorpion and a swarm. A scorpion said, 'That's what I do' so I followed that story in order to save the planet. Thanks to you for teaching me so much when I was young_…"

Sephiroth closes his eyes and remembers the story he told Aeris when she was so young.

"….."

"_Go to the City of the Ancients…I want to show you something there_…"

"City of the Ancients; that's where you were killed by Jenova. What is it that you want show me?"

"_I'll show you when you get there…no hurry though…I'll always be here, and there, for you. Once you are able to walk again, go there_…" The voice begins to fade out. Sephiroth's eyes widen, "Aeris! Don't go…please…"

"_Remember, Sephiroth…go to my city…You will see_…" The voice fades out leaving Sephiroth alone with his thoughts once more. "I will go there when my leg is better, Aeris." Sephiroth promises himself as he leaves the crumbling church.

...To be continued. Chapter 8 coming up!


	8. Ancient City

Chapter 8: Ancient City

It is two weeks later, and Sephiroth's leg has healed remarkably well. He has the sheath that he found in the Ruins of Midgar. He has told Cloud about the encounter with Aeris, and his need to go to the City of the Ancients. Cloud agrees to go along with him. He also wants to know why Aeris wants to show something, especially right now, and like this. So he calls Cid to pick them up and help fly them in the Highwind.

"Hey Sephiroth…I just spoke with Cid this morning." Cloud says as he hangs up the phone.

"Cid... Cid... Guy with a dirty mouth?" Sephiroth asks as he remembers the name.

"Yup, ha-ha. That's him hey, did you know him?" Cloud asks, a puzzled expression on his face.

"Heh, I haven't seen him since…I guess it'd be 10 years ago." Sephiroth smiles and leans back in his chair as Cloud sits down across from him. Tifa steps in with a tray full of glasses. "Oh, thank you Tifa." Stretching out his arm, he takes hold of one of the soda-filled glasses.

"Oh yeah, thanks hon." Mutters Cloud, taking a soda for himself from the tray. Tifa smiles and sits down at the table between the men.

"You're both welcome, what are you two talking about?" Cloud pauses to take a long drink from his glass,

"Valeria was about to tell us how he knew Cid before, I didn't know that guy got around so much." Sephiroth drank quickly from the glass, downing the soda in record time. He pauses a moment while setting the glass back down, and looks dazed for a moment.

"I don't remember it having so many (Burp) bubbles." His cheeks flush a light red as he covers his mouth. Tifa giggles, taking a small sip from her glass.

"You're not supposed to drink it so fast hone-...Valeria." Cloud shoots her an alarmed look and raises an eyebrow, now both Sephiroth and Tifa are blushing at the table. There is an awkward silence for a moment until Sephiroth speaks.

"Erm, back on topic... Cid used to be a trainer for beginning pilots. He piloted that small airplane, the Tiny Bronco I believe, before he designed and built the much bigger Highwind. He flew us over to Wutai when a battle was to be waged. Shin Ra and Wutai are horrible enemies. But I saved a bunch of Wutaians since the Shin Ra soldiers didn't expect me to be there, fighting for them. How is he?" Sephiroth smiles.

"Well, Cid is the same old man who uses dirty language as often as possible. And, of course, he still loves Shera's tea." Cloud chuckles as he scratches his head.

"Heh…nothing new." Sephiroth smiles then hears the roar of an engine over the town.

"Ah, that'd be him," Cloud says as he gets up and walks to the door, grabbing his bag along the way. "Let's go." Sephiroth nods as he gets up and walks out of Cloud's house along with Red and Tifa. The Highwind sets down just outside of town and waits for Sephiroth's team to get in. Sephiroth hears a voice from the Highwind, "Cloud! Get your fuckin' asses in now before I make ya pay for gas!" Sephiroth chuckles as he climbs into the Highwind. Cloud stares at the Highwind as though he's never seen it before. The Highwind has been changed a lot since Meteor. The Highwind seems like it has been combined with the old buggy and the Tiny Bronco to form an insane monstrosity of a vehicle. Cloud finally climbs into the Highwind.

"Who the fuck are you!" Cid points at Sephiroth. Sephiroth smiles as he lowers Cid's hand down.

"Hello, Aya!"

"What...! How the fuckin' did you know my middle name!" Cid blinks at Sephiroth.

"What…you don't remember? We used to ride on that little airplane over to Wutai, around 10 years ago?" Sephiroth chuckles as Cid's eyes widen.

"Only two people know my middle name are me and--" Cid pauses as he remembers the only person that always called him by that name. "No fuckin' way! You are fuckin' not him!" Cid's mouth drops open as he stares at Sephiroth.

"Cloud! Are you fuckin' out of your mind! What is Sephiroth doing in MY Highwind!" Cid screams at Cloud before starting to wheeze. He grabs a cigarette from his pocket and puts it on his lip. He lights it up and inhales heavily then coughs out a stream of blue smoke. The smoke trails out in front of Sephiroth.

"Aya…relax, man. I'm just plain ol' Sephiroth. The person you fought was just a clone of me created by Jenova. Call me Valeria now, gets less attention." Sephiroth pats Cid's back as he continues to wheeze.

"I can't fuckin' believe this!" Cid slowly stops coughing as Cloud scratches his head and clears his throat.

"Hope you went before you got on, I ain't stopping." Cid mumbles as he turns a dial and sends the airship up on a roar of air. Tifa slips close and pokes Sephiroth,

"Aya is Cid's middle name?" Tifa whispers in Sephiroth's ear. Sephiroth nods and snickers softly.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP! I don't want those people to know my fuckin' middle name!" Cid screams back at Sephiroth through the shrieking winds.

"…Sorry," Sephiroth smiles then whispers, "…Aya." Cid growls at Sephiroth and open his mouth to speak, just as they hit an air pocket that sent him back to the controls to steady the ship. The green lands below rush by at a dizzying speed, then settles down to land next to the ancient city.

"I'll be waiting for you guys." Cid says, glaring at Sephiroth.

"Ouch, Aya…er Cid." Sephiroth snickers, "Well, let's go." He steps out of the Highwind along with Red, Tifa and Cloud. Sephiroth looks around the area that seems to have not changed since the last time he was here. The four of them walk to the middle hut and step inside. Sephiroth looks at the illusion fish and reaches out to touch it, but picks up a scent and looks around.

"What?" Cloud looks at Sephiroth.

"Familiar scent…let me guess…Vincent?" Sephiroth searches for Vincent. Vincent appears from nowhere and walks toward Sephiroth's team.

"Yes…it is me," Vincent says as he looks at Sephiroth, "Mind if I join you?" Sephiroth nods as he looks back at the Illusion fish and speaks in an unknown language. The illusion fish begin to disappear and a path appears before them. They walk down a long path that ends at a pool of sacred water. (A/N: This is where Aeris was carried, and dropped into the water.) Sephiroth solemnly steps into the hut next to the water.

Suddenly, a white aura begins to glow around Sephiroth; as the light intensifies, it blinds everybody. Sephiroth shields his eyes from the brightness and feels the wind calm down. He opens his eyes once more and finds himself in... a forest. He looks around, puzzled.

"Cloud! Tifa? Guys?" Sephiroth yells as he looks around. He finds that he is alone…again.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Cloud, Tifa and Red open their eyes and find themselves in the land along the water. Cloud looks around and finds that Sephiroth is nowhere to be seen. Vincent has seemingly disappeared also.

"Sephiroth! Vincent!" Cloud yells. Tifa hugs Cloud and whispers that she is scared. Red sniffs the air to see if he can find any scents, but to no avail.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Vincent opens his eyes and looks around. He finds himself in a town. (A/N: I couldn't remember what town it was where Vincent and Lurecica were together before she left him.)

"What the," Vincent's voice trails off as he remembers this place as the town where Lurecica left him. Suddenly, a figure wrapped in a white aura walks out of an alleyway toward Vincent. He blinks at the figure, stunned and trying to see who the figure is. The white aura fades as the person steps closer to reveal...

"Lurecica!" Vincent whispers as he stares at the figure.

"Yes, Vincent." Lurecica smiles as her body become real, solidifying before his eyes.

"It can't be! You were lost to me!" Vincent looks away from Lurecica, unsure of what to do.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sephiroth hears noise through the thick trees, and follows the sound. He starts running through the forest as he realizes there is a white light shining out through the thick foliage. He runs into a clearing and stops in his tracks; a bunch of people are fighting against monsters.

"What the hell!" Sephiroth blinks. The people don't even realize that Sephiroth is here. It's as if he doesn't exist to them. Sephiroth sees that a tall man with black hair stands by a silver haired man's side. That black haired man looks like…Vincent? Sephiroth blinks again and he thinks he must be imagining all this. "Did I bang my head on that rickety old heap of Cid's?"

"Sephiroth…as you see them, their battle was started two thousand years ago. The Cetra fought against Jenova and her monsters." The figure's voice seems like it's coming from far away, even as it walks toward Sephiroth. He spins around and sees the person, and is once again blinded by the light.

"…Aeris!" Sephiroth is shocked. He hasn't seen Aeris for long time, since she was a child, in fact. He stares at Aeris, thinking that she is a beautiful woman now, amazed at how she's grown since being a child.

"Yes, Sephiroth. It's so wonderful to see you again." Aeris smiles.

"What is this? Who are those two people? They look just like me and Vincent." Sephiroth points at the two men, locked in a fierce fight against a horde of monsters. Aeris looks at the two people and sighs.

"You see, they are not Vincent or you. They were heroes who once stopped Jenova. However, their power was not enough to cleanse Jenova, so they decided to seal Jenova by sacrificing themselves." Aeris explains. Sephiroth nods and notices the long sword the silver haired man is holding. "Masamune…he pulled the Masamune out!" Sephiroth points at the silver haired man.

"Yes, it is the same Masamune you use. It is over four thousand years old. You can see why it is called The Legendary Masamune. You just know how to use it without training. Do you know why?" Aeris looks at Sephiroth as he shakes his head.

"That silver haired man is named Alludar. He chose you, and his soul transferred into your body when you were born. You were re born to use the Masamune against Jenova and you had a chance to once again kill Jenova while she slept in the chamber. But you failed somehow." Aeris explains as her voice seems to echo from far away.

"The one with Alludar is named Alex, his brother." Aeris answers. Sephiroth looks up at the mirrored version of himself and then looks back at Aeris.

"Of course, Vincent Valentine is not your brother. Alex, on the other hand, had chosen Vincent Valentine to be his avatar in order to be with Alludar and kill Jenova." Aeris explains. Sephiroth remembers losing the Masamune to the clone of himself before Jenova transferred her soul into his body.

"My Masamune…it might be in the crater where the clone was destroyed…" Sephiroth looks up as Alludar raises his hand and watches as it begins to glow with a strange aura that then flows into the Masamune, allowing it to develop the power to slaughter monsters, "Whoa…what's that white aura?" he stares at Alludar. "Those two, are neither humans; nor Cetra." Aeris answers.

"What are they?" Sephiroth asks as he was beginning to wonder about the history of Cetra and Jenova.

"Dragons. Dragons that incarnate a human host to bring their influence into this world. Alludar was a silver dragon known as the Holy Dragon. Alex was a black dragon known as the Death Dragon. They were able to combine their powers in order to take the release Jenova's hold on this place. Together, they saved the Cetra and stopped Jenova. It was a terrible cost, many people died fighting for their world against Lord Jenova's rule." Aeris explains.

"Wait a minute…Jenova was…male?" Sephiroth blinks at Aeris. The scene around them swirled like a mist in a strong wind until they were within a stone throne room. The harsh sound of steel rang out through the room as two men fought savagely nearby. Sephiroth saw the silver-haired Alludar duel with a darkly robed man.

"Demon! Your reign ends now!" Yells the warrior, his Masamune a blur of attacks on the robed man. Lord Jenova carried no weapon, but smirked as the Masamune's blade was turned away by a magical force with each stroke.

"Pathetic fool, your might is as grass pounding upon rock. How eagerly you rush to your death!" The air shimmered around him as the magical energies protecting him shot out, throwing Alludar to the floor.

"Now brother! The shield!" Alludar yelled as he fell, his arm twisting into a gruesome position from the fall. Without a sound, Alex leapt out from the shadows and stabbed his blade through the magical field, weakened from its attack on Alludar. A hiss escaped the lips of Lord Jenova as blood stained his brown robes.

"Yes. Jenova was embodied within a male before he was defeated four thousand years ago. The Jenova here perished, but was reborn inside a woman. That woman was Alludar's wife, Diane. Jenova took over Diane's body and controlled her." Sephiroth's view fades again as the scene around him slides into the living room of a nicely kept home. Alludar comes into focus, weeping and cradling the body of a seemingly dead woman. His tears fall onto the fresh bandages that cover his arm. As he weeps, the woman's corpse begins to stir.

"Please, please let it be true!" His hand takes hold of his wife's as a soft smile covers her face. An unnatural, dry laugh escapes Diane's lip that sends shivers down Alludar's spine. The sound is like the sound of leaves crunching, made into a hideous laugh. She throws Alludar backwards and gets to her feet in a smooth motion. Speaking in an unknown language, a black aura begins to form around her body. Her hair turns silver from brown. Her eyes turn silver from green. Her body shifts and molds itself from a human state to that of a monster. Sephiroth nearly covers his face in disgust.

The door slams open as the dark-haired Alex steps through, gasping at the horrible transformation.

"Al, we **have** to seal her before she finishes the call for Meteor! We must sacrifice ourselves to form the seal and protect the world." Alludar's face seems to go blank as he nods.

"You're right. We don't have enough power to kill this Jenova. It's the only way." Alludar says as he closes his eyes. Alex closes his eyes also, and reaches out to take his brother's hand. They speak another unknown language, their words forming a vapor in the air that seem to drift onto Jenova. Alludar's body is covered by a silver-white aura, the light glows from within his body and quickly encompasses his entire body. Alex's body is also consumed, his aura darker than the pitch left after a fire. Their auras form into one, and move to encompass Jenova as well.

"What? No, NO! NOOOOOO!" Jenova screams as the two Dragons' aura's cocoon her body. The Dragon brothers seal Jenova's body within themselves as the swirling aura fades in the room, leaving only a dark lump of rock behind. The armies of Jenova scattered, and degraded into mobs of robbers and bandits. Meteor, which could faintly be seen, disappeared. The Cetra cheered for their victory, but could not explain the loss of their heroes, or Diane. Searching their home, they discovered the small lump of rock within their old home. They decided to seal the black materia at the Temple of the Ancients. Another flash blinds Sephiroth, forcing him to shield his eyes. He hears a roar around him, from a great wind that keeps him from breathing. He opens his eyes as the wind dies down and finds himself back at the Temple of the Ancients.

Cloud, Tifa and Red find themselves on the top of a large hill. The sun beams down on them warmly, as the three look around.

"I hope Sephiroth and Vincent are okay." Tifa says as she peers over the side of the steep hill. "That's a huge drop!" She whispers, stumbling backwards to get away from the near-vertical cliff side. Cloud holds her shoulders to steady her as he looks down into a sea of fog. The land below is covered with a sea of white mist, blending with the sky as Cloud squinted to find the horizon. Red sniffs the air and shrugs.

"Well, we were just whisked away from the City of the Ancients, least now we've got a better view." Suddenly, a white aura glows in front of them, forming form the blades of glass blanketing the hilltop. The aura wavers a moment, and seems to struggle to grow brighter. Finally, a weak voice floats out from inside the light.

"Cloud?"

"Aeris!" Cloud cries, the voice unmistakable. Tifa gasps, a stunned look on her face. Red's eyes narrow into slits of suspicion as he sniffs the air again.

"Cloud, Tifa and Red. I am here to tell you something very important…" The voice within the apparition seems to flicker, each word sounding as if echoed back from a far-off wall.

"What is it?" Cloud asks.

"Sephiroth…"

"What about him?"

"Sephiroth must be protected. Avoid allowing him to transform into a dragon. Please, protect him. If he transforms, his dragon heart will be vulnerable to Jenova. He may be the only one that can save the world now." The flicker of a sigh is heard; Cloud, Tifa and Red look at each other for a moment in disbelief, then back towards the white glow.

"Yeah, we will try. We'll protect him." Cloud says.

"If Sephiroth rage is stirred, you must calm him down somehow. The transformation is only possible through an intense rage." Cloud scratches his head. Aeris's spirit begins to fade out, its voice growing more distant.

"Remember, protect him, and do not let him be angered!" The white glow fades before them, leaving them staring at the open sky surrounding them once more. Cloud heard a whisper begin around his ears that grew to a roar as the wind blew around them. Terrified of falling off the open hilltop, the three dropped to the ground and hung onto the thick grass. When the wind stopped, they found themselves clutching the grass growing in the field of the Ancient's City.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"What? You…he…" Vincent stammers, completely shocked. Lucreica looks down, away from Vincent.

"Yes…he is your son. I'm sorry that I couldn't tell you in front of Hojo. If I tell Hojo that Sephiroth is your son, he will kill you instantly! I can't stand to think of that happening. So, I kept it a secret and made him think that Sephiroth is his son." Lucreica smiles a bit.

"Why…? Why did you do this!" Vincent's normally calm voice nearly cracked with emotion.

"It was the only way to keep you alive. I had no choice. I'm sorry you have to look that way now, but the important thing is you're alive. Please forgive me; I forgave you a long time ago. You're the one who should forgive me." Lucreica starts crying and sobbing into her hands. Vincent frowns and steps up to hold the woman, burying his face in her hair.

"Lucreica…how can I tell Sephiroth that I'm his father? Look at our ages; I'm 29 years old and he…he seems almost 30!" Vincent whispers at Lucreica.

"I'm sorry, Vincent…I was already pregnant by you before I went with Hojo. I'm sorry that I slapped you; I'm sorry for everything! The whole thing was a mistake! Forgive me, please before I leave…" Lucreica steps back to meet Vincent's eyes.

"Lucreica…I'm sorry too. I I forgive you. I know I'm angry, but it's better now that you've told me whole truth. I still remember that you forgave me long a time ago. I I'll love you no matter what." Vincent reaches out to hold Lucreica again, but she fades away from him into the darkness.

"Tell him when the time is right." Lucreica calls out from the darkness. Vincent's eyebrows narrow, unsure how to reply, or even what she means. Another blink and he is once again in the City of the Ancients.

"Vincent!" Cloud calls as they walk over, Vincent looks up at them and sighs.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"What am I doing here?" Sephiroth says as he looks up at the Temple of the Ancients.

"This is the Temple of the Ancients where the Black Materia was kept after the war. Cait Sith, gave his life so that we could have the Black Materia instead of your clone." Sephiroth blinks as Aeris appears.

"Cait shouldn't have done that…if he hadn't; my clone would be dead in there instead. Dammit." Sephiroth sighs. Aeris look down away from Sephiroth. The illusion around him fades into the Mt. Nibel Reactor.

"One more thing you should know…" Aeris says as she walks toward the Reactor. Sephiroth hesitates a moment, then follows her in.

"What is it, Aeris?" Sephiroth asks when Aeris stops on the bridge that leads to the door. Aeris looks at Sephiroth.

"Are you sure you want see this?" Aeris asks before she starts to show him. Sephiroth looks at Aeris and nods.

"Very well. It's about Cloud…" Aeris says as she looks around and watches. Sephiroth sees himself walking out of the door, holding Jenova's head and his Masamune. Cloud dashes out of the door and yells.

"Sephiroth!" Cloud raises his sword and runs toward the clone. The clone stops and looks back at Cloud, in a smooth motion he swings his Masamune and slashes through Cloud's upper hip.

"Ugh…" Cloud chokes, dropping his sword. The clone raises the Masamune, along with Cloud, into the air.

"What a fool…" The imposter Sephiroth laughs. Cloud locks eyes with his attacker, He grabs the handrail alongside the platform and forces his feet back to the ground.

"Sephiroth…" Cloud's voice breaks, staring unblinking at the clone.

"No…That is impossible!" stammers the clone. Cloud grabs the Masamune and jerks it to the side; the clone is thrown off balance, struggling to hold onto his sword. He trips on the handrails and falls screaming into the Lifestream below. The Masamune slip out of Cloud's hip as he slumps to the ground moaning and holding his wound. The blood flows freely between his fingers as his breathing becomes labored and shallow. Sephiroth gasps as he watches the real Cloud Strife die in front of him. He kneels down slowly and his voice breaks; "Cloud…"

"That was the real Cloud Strife. He died 7 years ago, after he killed your clone. You see, the Cloud who rescued you; he is a clone as well. However, he has retained the real Cloud's memories, so he thinks he is the real Cloud Strife. With his cloning, he was implanted with Jenova's cells." Aeris whispers as Sephiroth struggles to understand all that has happened.

"Wait, what? Are you saying that Cloud has Jenova's cells! I can't believe this!" He breathes heavily and closes his eyes, balling his fists. Aeris sighs sadly.

"Sephiroth, calm down…Now, you know the difference between the Real Cloud and the Fake Cloud. You MUST watch for him since he now has Jenova's cells within him. He could be taken over and controlled by Jenova's cells at any time. If this happens, you MUST throw your holy blood on him. That's the only way to kill Jenova's cells inside of him without killing Cloud himself." Aeris explains while Sephiroth climbs back to his feet.

"What if it doesn't work?" Sephiroth looked down at Aeris.

"Jenova must be stopped, either by killing the cells inside, or the host." Aeris says as she sighs; Sephiroth's eyes widen.

"Kill Cloud?" Sephiroth looks away from Aeris, "Throwing my blood onto him must work Aeris. It has to!"

"That is all I can show you. Now you know the full history of Jenova and Cloud. You know what you must do, protect the world and rid it of Jenova's cells, however you can." Aeris's spirit begins to fade out with an unearthly glow, "And Sephiroth, don't tell Tifa about Cloud. That would only upset her. Also, do not tell them about the real Jenova." Sephiroth nods as he understands. The illusion changes back to Ancient City, where he was supposed to be. He blinks a few times,

"Why can't I ever get an easy way to save the world?" He mutters, seeing Tifa and the others walking up the path toward him.

"Valeria!" Cloud calls out, "You okay?" Sephiroth waves and smiles.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Sephiroth looks away from Cloud and joins them walking towards along the path. Cloud scratches his head when he hears Sephiroth's deep voice.

...To be continued. Chapter 8 coming up!


	9. What! He's back!

Chapter 9: WHAT! HE'S BACK!

Cloud leads the group as they step into an area with a large altar surrounded by curving steps. Cloud remembers this area; it's where Aeris was killed. He clearly remembers from 3 years ago. The memories of Aeris flood Cloud's mind, sadness making his lip quiver.

"Let's get out of here," Cloud whispers to Tifa, his voice suddenly husky with emotion. She motions to the others and they continue past the altar, leaving Sephiroth staring at a mark on the altar's floor.

"Aeris's blood…" Sephiroth whispers as he looks at the floor. There is still an old blood stain on the floor, but it isn't even red anymore. It looks like a rust-colored stain on the white marble floor. He kneels down slowly and touches his hand to the floor. He notices the broken beams of sunlight arranged in a random patter on the ground. Looking up, he sees that the stained glass skylight above him had been shattered, seemingly a long time ago. He gets up and frowns, "What kind of monster would destroy such a perfect window?" He thinks, marveling at the detail on the bits of unshattered sections that remain.

"_Sephiroth…what a surprise!"_

Sephiroth spins his head around and looks outside the altar. He walks backward and looks around.

"_Ha, ha, ha…my dear boy, you are still the same old Sephiroth from 7 years ago!"_

Sephiroth is shocked. He reaches for his sword instinctively before remembering he wasn't armed. 'Dammit!' he thinks.

"Who are you? Show yourself!" he growls.

"_Humph!" _

A black figure appears in front of Sephiroth with a hood covering his face, along with a cloak for his body. He walks toward Sephiroth.

"Here I am, Sephiroth…I'm so glad that I see you're still alive after all these years!" Sephiroth growls at the hooded man.

"Back off, old man! I can't figure out who you are but your scent is pretty odd. Show me your face!" Sephiroth gets ready to attack the hooded man if he tries anything.

"Ha, ha, ha! You want me to let you see my face. Oh, this is so great! Fine, here I am!" Slowly the visitor lifts away his hood to reveal…

"HOJO!" Sephiroth screams, too shocked to say anything else. He grabs the old man and lifts him up into the air by his neck.

"How are you still alive! Cloud told me that you died! They killed you!" Sephiroth roars at Hojo.

"Ha, ha, ha! They killed my precious clone! Yes, I used my clone to fight them so I could have time to escape! This is so wonderful! Ha, ha, ha…!" Hojo laughs as Sephiroth feels a shiver travel down in his spine. Sephiroth pushes Hojo against the wall of the altar, tightening his hold on his throat.

"Enough about clones, you sick bastard! I lost my friends because of you! Your clone of me killed Aeris right here!" Sephiroth yells at Hojo.

"Friends? _You_ had friends! Ha, ha, ha! That's rich! You didn't care anything about having friends! All you cared about was doing your job!" Hojo coughed, struggling to talk while being half-strangled. Sephiroth could barely hear Hojo's coughs over the thudding of blood in his ears, his vision turned a shade of red as his hands tightened on the man's neck.

"Shut the hell up!" Sephiroth growls as his body begins to slowly transform.

"Yes! (Cough) Get mad! (Gasp) Ha... ha...!" Hojo laughs as Sephiroth roars and throws him against the marble wall behind him. Sephiroth gasps as he slowly kneels down, grabbing his head.

"Valeria!" a voice from the bottom of the altar, "Please, calm down!" she runs up to alter and sees Sephiroth kneeling on the floor. She hugs Sephiroth from his behind, "Calm down, please!" Sephiroth lets his hands go from his head and looks up at Tifa.

"T Tifa…" Sephiroth tries to breathe deeply, to calm himself down, "Hojo…he…" He was cut off by someone.

"Ha, ha, ha! I, Hojo, have returned! Tifa, you look good!" Hojo laughs as he floats into the air. Sephiroth spins his head around quickly and looks at Hojo.

"Hojo! You're supposed to be dead!" Tifa gasps, even more shocked than Sephiroth was. Hojo glares at Tifa evilly.

"Ha, ha, ha! This is the second time you tried to choke me, Sephiroth! But you've failed once again! I cannot be killed by you or your little friends!" Hojo laughs. He moves toward Sephiroth and takes a good look at him, "Ooooh! Your eyes, they are beginning to turn red! Ha, ha, ha! Go ahead, transform! Let your anger boil out!" Sephiroth tightens his hands and growls at Hojo. Suddenly, a gunshot sounds from below, aimed at Hojo. Hojo raises his hand and a glowing green shield covers him. The bullet hits the shield and burns then melts away.

"Vincent! Ha, ha, ha!" Hojo giggles at Vincent. Vincent jumps toward the altar and lands in front of Sephiroth and Tifa. He looks back at Sephiroth; "Sephiroth, don't transform. Hojo just wants you to transform so he can take your dragon heart. Please calm down…" Sephiroth takes a heavy sigh and Tifa hugs him tighter.

"Hmm...How did you know that I'm here for the Dragon heart?" Hojo glares at Vincent. Vincent aims his gun at Hojo, "Stay away from Sephiroth…he's not—" he pauses then sigh, "You won't take the Dragon heart from Sephiroth. We're here to protect him from you!" Hojo laughs and points at Vincent; "Ha, ha, ha! You could say that, but my dear specimen, you never know when there could be a spy in your group! His Dragon heart could be taken anytime when he is in his true form!" Hojo points at Sephiroth, "Show me your dragon heart!" His hands clench into fists and the green cloak forms around him again. Sephiroth gasps and grabs at his chest in pain. The red light suddenly flashes from his chest. His head falls back while he screams in pain. Tifa gets up and stands front of Sephiroth.

"Hojo! Stop! Stop it! You're hurting him!" Tifa screams at him. Hojo floats toward Sephiroth but is blocked by Tifa and Vincent. He stares at Sephiroth's chest with it brightening red aura and giggles.

"Yes…yes! His Dragon heart is all ready! It is completed after all! So, I can use it to revive the real Jenova!" Hojo laughs but suddenly he falls onto the ground and looks up at the figure that has staggered him. Red growls at him; "Hojo…stay away from Sephiroth! Or I will rip your throat out!" Hojo smiles at Red then pushes Red out with his unknown magic. Red crashes back into the wall. Hojo gets up then floats into the air.

"You fools! You cannot defeat me with such weak power! Ha, ha, ha! Sephiroth, my dear boy, you shall wait for me…Just wait for me! Ha, ha, ha!" Hojo laughs as he floats away out of the altar. Sephiroth falls and blacks out due to the pain. Tifa gasps and kneels down; "Valeria! Valeria!" Tifa picks up Sephiroth's head, and brings it to her lap. Vincent kneels down and stares at Sephiroth. Red groans as he gets up and sees Sephiroth lying on the floor.

"What happened!" Red limps toward his friends.

"He blacked out from the pain Hojo caused. He will be all right, though. Now, we must keep eye on him while Hojo is around." Vincent says as he looks at Red.

"Hojo knows about his Dragon heart…I bet that was a long time ago when he was in the lab and did something to Valeria. I just heard Hojo mention something about reviving the 'real' Jenova by using Valeria's Dragon heart." Tifa says.

"Reviving the real Jenova from the Dragon heart itself, but I thought it was all just a myth…" Vincent looks up at Tifa.

"Yeah, I heard that myth too. According to my grandpa; Dragon hearts can be used to revive good or evil sources of power. However, this may cause the owner of the Dragon heart to become fully human again, in a case like this, and sometimes, it may kill the owner." Red explains as he remembers his grandpa's story. Vincent's eyes widen.

"It can kill the owner if it gets removed!" Tifa gasps and Red nods, "Yes…it may. Right now, for Valeria's safety, we must get him back to town immediately!" Vincent picks Sephiroth up and carries him out but he stops and looks around...

"Hey…where is Cloud?"

...To be continued. Chapter 10 coming up!


	10. Where is Cloud?

Chapter 10: Where is Cloud?

Vincent looks around and asks; "Hey, where is Cloud…?" Tifa looks up at Vincent before realizing she's got no idea.

"I thought he was right behind us," Said Tifa, "Just a second ago." Her mind works fast to think of what to do. "With Hojo out there, we need to find him. Cid can take care of Valeria back at the highwind." Vincent nods and takes Sephiroth's arm around him to help him out of the ruined city. Tifa and Red walk back in and continue their search for Cloud.

Together, Vincent and Sephiroth hobbled back to the Highwind, the sound of their panting made Cid wake up from his hammock on the deck. He grumbled as he rubbed his eyes sleepily.

"What the fuck? When did you two get so close?" Cid chuckles as he fumbles in his pockets for a cigarette.

Vincent sighs and told Cid everything what happened. Cid raises his eyebrow as he lit his cigarette up.

"That fucker! Sure, I'll take care of little dragon-boy here, you can go ahead and let me know when we should take off." Cid nods at Vincent. Vincent walks out quietly and disappears, as usual. Cid looks over Sephiroth as he nudges the sleeping man with his boot.

"Wake the fuck up! We need you!" Sephiroth gave a series of coughs, but his eyes remain closed. Cid sighs heavily and squats down to get his face closer to Sephiroth's ear.

"Wake…the…fuck…up! Come on!" Cid yells into Sephiroth's ear, to no effect.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tifa and Red continue their search for Cloud in the maze-like ancient city. Tifa sighs to herself, lately she just couldn't help thinking that Cloud has been hiding something from her. Her mind wanders as she calls out for her husband. Sephiroth's return really broke the peace they'd had ever since his clone was killed. Thinking back on it, Seph wasn't as cruel as she thought he'd be. She remembered stories she'd heard about Sephiroth; that he was very strict in Junon, and often abusive to the men under his command. She blinks and snap out of her thoughts as Red tensed up momentarily.

"Hey, I found Cloud's scent here." Red calls as he sniffs on the ground. Red leads her to a path leading all the way out of Ancient City and into a dense forest. Red stops as Tifa looks on, he shakes his head back and forth with his nose held high.

"I lost the scent here, but remember this place? This is a path to the Crater." Red says as he looks around at Tifa.

"Cloud's gone to the Crater? But why?" Tifa begins to ponder, staring up past the line of trees to the rim of the Crater in the distance. "Do you smell anything else, Red? Has Hojo been here?" Red shook his head.

"Nothing else along this path except the animals in the forest. I don't think they'd mind eating us."

"Oh, what can we do then? My husband is in there!" Red nodded in agreement.

"We'll need Valeria for this," Red suggests, "if he's conscious by now."

"Let me call Cid" Tifa says, picking up her phone.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Cid sighs in frustration, pacing back and forth along the deck of the Highwind. He spits his old cigarette down off the side and searches his pockets for another.

"You know, that stuff will put you in an early grave, Aya." A voice says softly. Cid jumps in surprise, nearly dropping his newfound cigarette.

"And I'll put YOU in an early grave if you ever scare me like that again!" Cid laughs as his phone begins ringing in his pocket. He deftly slips his smoke into his left hand and takes a drag before answering.

"Yeah?"

"Did Seph wake up yet?" Tifa says softly.

"Yeah, he just woke up in few seconds ago and he fuckin' scared the shit out of me-" Sephiroth chuckles in background, "Shut the fuck up!" Tifa giggles a bit. She felt so happy but she didn't know why.

"We think Cloud's gone to the Crater," Says Tifa, "Red lost his scent at the edge of the forest."

"All right, we will head over and pick you punks up in a bit." Cid took another drag on his cigarette as he slipped the phone back into his pocket. He looks down at Sephiroth, still laying on the deck. "You all right to fly?" Sephiroth sits up slowly and nods.

"My chest hurts like hell, but I'll be fine." Cid nods as he climbs into the cockpit. The Highwind gained altitude quickly, rising over the ancient city toward the forest beyond.

"What happened?" Sephiroth says as the ship dips lower to the ground. Tifa bites her lower lip as she climbs aboard.

"Cloud disappeared, we went to search for him and couldn't find him anywhere in the city. Red found his scent and followed it up to the path leading into the forest. But, it ended right there. Red and I think he headed for the Crater on path. We've got to get there to pick up Cloud, for whatever reason he went in." Tifa explains.

Sephiroth leans his back against a railing and folds his arms across his chest.

"_You MUST watch out for him since he has Jenova's cells within him." _He remembers Aeris's words; _"He can be controlled anytime by Jenova's cells. If he turns out like this, you must throw your holy blood on him. That's the only thing that can kill the Jenova cells inside of him."_

Sephiroth took a deep sigh as the Crater came into view. It was getting harder and harder to know what to do anymore.

"I've got to do this. Cloud acted strangely and disappeared from us. I…I've got to fight him and throw my blood on him. I don't want Tifa to see us like this, the others would never understand it all." Sephiroth's thoughts swirl with confusion. Cid deftly pilots the Highwind to a small clearing along the side of the cliff. Sephiroth looks over the edge, into the pit hundred of feet below, where the crater was filled with lifestream. He sighs heavily again, remembering that his Masamune may still be down there. He needs to get it to protect himself and his friends.

Tifa walks up to Sephiroth and clears her throat. Sephiroth keeps staring into the crater, seemingly unaware of anything but his thoughts. His eyes close and his hand tightens on the handrail.

"…Valeria? Are you all right?" Tifa lays her hand on Sephiroth's back. Sephiroth snaps out of his reverie and opens his eyes again to look up at Tifa slowly.

"Oh, I'm sorry…" he mutters, clearing his throat, "Yes, I'm all right. I was just thinking that's all." Sephiroth says as he tries to do his best to smile at Tifa. Cid walks in as he sees Sephiroth and Tifa leaning on the railing.

"Hey punks! Let's go down there and kick their fuckin' asses!" Cid chuckles as he pats Sephiroth's back. Tifa giggles as Sephiroth smirks at Cid.

"Yeah… let's go." Sephiroth says, dropping a ladder down to the ground.

"Someone lead the way, this is the first time I've been here." Sephiroth says, looking at Tifa. Tifa smiles and nods at him. The group begins to slowly climb down the rock wall into the Crater. Eventually the wall flattens out until the team is back to walking along a rocky path. As they draw closer to the lifestream below, the path clearly splits toward different areas of the crater. Cid walks up on left path and looks back at Sephiroth's team.

"Hey Red, can you sniff out which way Cloud went through here?" Red slowly went over the ground with his nose, first the left path, then the right one.

"I can't smell him at all out here, think we passed him?" Red's ears perked up as he looked back at Cid.

"No, Cloud was missing a long time before we discovered gone, he's well past here by now." Said Vincent, looking uncomfortably hot in his dark cloak.

"We've gotta split for this fork to look for him. I'll take this left path. Who else's gonna join me?" Cid says as he looks at Sephiroth.

"I'll go with Cid." Vincent says in quietly voice, stepping past him and down the pathway below. Red tosses his mane and follows Vincent, pausing to look back.

"I'll go with them since Valeria can smell a scent." Red says. Tifa nods and walks with Sephiroth onto the right path.

"See you punks at the bottom!" Cid yells out, leaving Sephiroth and Tifa all alone.

"Well, I'll be right behind you, Tifa." Sephiroth says as he looks at Tifa, who nods. They step off down the right path, the rocky soil making each step treacherous.

"Wow, this place is really messed up after that Crater explosion 3 years ago." Tifa says as she walks by ruined rocks lying on the ground. Sephiroth looks around and sniffs into the air to see if he could get a whiff of Cloud's odor.

"We've gone a long way down here, isn't this place supposed to get really warm as we go deeper?" Sephiroth ponders as he walks along with Tifa.

"Actually, the core of the planet is the Lifestream. It doesn't need to get hot as we go deeper; the river at the bottom is like a scar on the planet." Tifa explains while struggling to keep her balance on the rocky path.

"I see," Said Sephiroth as they continue their trek along the path.

"We're here, the Lifestream is just over that ridge." Tifa couldn't believe that Lifestream is still here even since the Crater blew up. She thought the planet would have healed this by now.

"My Masamune is down there right?…I can't get it through that Lifestream stuff." Sephiroth frowns as Tifa peers down over the edge.

"I went into Lifestream with Cloud once, It wasn't painful, just... I couldn't take a full breath. But the Lifestream brought us back to surface again, it knew we weren't dead. Maybe you could swim down there and grab your masamune. Lifestream might throw you out since you're not dead." Tifa replies. Sephiroth stands behind Tifa and sighs heavily.

"Well, well, well!" a voice rings out and echoes across the rocks around them. Sephiroth spins around to see something out there. Tifa jumped back from the ledge quickly and held tightly to Sephiroth's arm.

"I'm glad that you're here, Sephiroth. Guess we both like being...right! Ha, ha, ha…." The voice echoes again. Sephiroth growls as he steps forward to protect Tifa behind him. A figure leaps down from a ridge above and dissolves into the shadows. Sephiroth's eyes squint into the darkness, darting back and forth to see something. Tifa's hand tightens on Sephiroth's arm as she is scared and doesn't know what to do.

A shadow suddenly jumps toward Tifa, pushing her away from Sephiroth. Sephiroth spins around quickly in time to see Tifa and fall back over the edge of the ridge. He dove toward Tifa and grabbed at her as she fell, catching her hand and pulling her back toward the rocky wall. Their attacker turns around and kicks Sephiroth's arm away from Tifa. The shadowy figure grab's Sephiroth's neck and it pushes him against a nearby rock-wall.

Sephiroth looks down at the person strangling him and tries to see their face, before the choking takes its toll and his vision fades into darkness. Tifa had just climbed back onto the plateau in time to see Sephiroth being choked. She yells as she dashes toward the dark outline. Their attacker spins around in time to see Tifa's foot slam into his head, knocking it against the rock-wall. Both Sephiroth and the now-unconscious attacker crumpled into a heap on the path's floor.

"Valeria! Are you all right!" Tifa pulls his body away from the other and struggles to wake him up. Sephiroth begins to choke and gasps for air as he slowly wakes up.

"How many more times am I going to be knocked out today?" Sephiroth croaked, wincing from the pain in his throat. Tifa looks over at the unconscious figure laying on the ground. She walks over and pulls down a cloak's hood to reveal spiky blond hair.

"Cloud!" Tifa screams in shock. Sephiroth's turned his head slowly, a deep bruise forming on his neck.

"He can't be Cloud! Cloud isn't strong enough to choke me and lift me like that." Tifa starts crying suddenly.

"Why would he do this? What's wrong with him, Valeria!" Sephiroth shakily got to his feet and looked down at Cloud's face; a thin trickle of blood had pooled under his head where it had been cut open from the sharp rock-wall. As Sephiroth watched, the blood turned from a dark crimson, to a glowing blue.

"Oh, this is not good…" Sephiroth mutters under his breathe. Tifa must have heard him, her sobs grew louder. Sephiroth looks up from Cloud's face to see Tifa crying all alone. He felt bad that she had to be involved in all this; she loves Cloud so much. After kicking him, and how he tried to kill her, she must be shattered. He sighs before being flung backwards toward the lifestream by Cloud's unknown magic. Sephiroth ducked quickly, barely holding onto the edge of the cliff. Tifa spins around and saw Sephiroth struggling to hang on.

"Valeria! No!" Tifa cries out. Cloud laughs with an unearthly voice as he gets to his feet and saunters over to the cliff's edge.

"Well! This is perfect! Once you fall into the Lifestream, you'll never come back to trouble us again!" Cloud's laughter echoes throughout the big hole. Sephiroth grunts and looks up at Cloud while he tries to hold as he could.

"Cloud, listen! Jenova is inside you, you've got to fight it off!" Sephiroth yelled, his hand was struggling to keep its grip on the ledge. Cloud grins evilly down at Sephiroth and steps on his hand. Tifa yells again while she runs toward Cloud. Cloud's head whips around and eyed Tifa.

"Not again you don't!" He laughed as she was flung backwards by an unseen force. "Now, die Sephiroth!" Cloud chuckles as his eyes begin to glow silver. Sephiroth's hand starts to loosen under Cloud's heavy boot…

...To be continued. Chapter 11 coming up!


	11. Cloud and The Masamune

Chapter 11: Cloud and The Masamune

"Die, Sephiroth!" Cloud screamed as his eyes narrowed in hatred. Sephiroth's hand started to loosen...

Suddenly, Vincent tackled Cloud as Sephiroth slipped, tumbling into the lifestream below. Cid followed Vincent's lead, leaping down and poising his spear against Cloud's neck. Cloud struggled against Vincent's tight grip on his arms and looked up to smile evilly at Cid.

"Oh, Vinnie and Cid! So good to see you two again!" Vincent shifted his grip on Cloud, pulling his arm up to pin Cloud's face against the rocky ground. Tifa got up slowly, holding her head where it struck the wall from Cloud's unknown magic. She moaned, imagining the bruise it would leave, then suddenly remembered about Sephiroth, hanging on the edge. She ran to the edge, only to find that Sephiroth wasn't there.

"Valeria!" She cried, choking back tears. Cloud laughed, coughing from the dirt so close to his face.

"I hope Sephiroth suffers down there!" Tifa spun around and glared at Cloud with tear-filled eyes. Red walked to the edge, peering over the lifestream carefully and started to ponder.

"If Valeria falls down there…why can't he swim?" Red's eyes suddenly went wide. Vincent shouted suddenly, sparks were flaring between him and Cloud pinned below him. Cloud's spell gave him the time needed to roll over and jump to his feet before dashing deeper into the cavern. Vincent cursed under his breath and got to his feet.

"Let him go." Said Tifa. "We need to get Valeria out of the Lifestream! He might drown down there. I should have known better after he said 'I can't get through the Lifestream this way.' That means he can't swim! How can we get him out of there?" Tifa joined Red looking down into the lifestream. Vincent walked toward the edge and looked back at Tifa.

"I'll get him. I'm a monster so the lifestream won't pull me down. Let me do it." Vincent transformed into his Chaos form, a tall black-winged dragon. Tifa nodded at Vincent before he turned and dove into the lifestream.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sephiroth floats into the darkness as he sleeps. He has no idea where will he float. He could feel the cold around him. He feels something hold him and pull him into a warmer place. He finally opens his eyes and finds that he is lying on the lifestream's riverbed. He gets up slowly and looks around; the place seems very familiar to him somehow. His boots don't have much grip on the ashy surface of the crater. He hears a whoosh sound around the place where he stands on. The place suddenly change it own form too quickly. The flames starts grow out and burns too fast. He realizes those houses that he had seen from the past.

The houses appear along with flames around Sephiroth. He looks down to a body that lies down on ground. He is about to check this body out but interrupted by someone. He spins around and sees someone standing in flame along with the Masamune! The shine comes out from the Masamune itself. The reflection of flames from the Masamune became shiny. Sephiroth take a good look at someone in the flame. The face from flame becomes reveal and smiles. Sephiroth's eye went widen in shock.

"You! You started all of this! Killed innocent people! All right, you cloned jerk, you stole my Masamune, you started to fire this place and you killed innocent people! That's enough!"

Sephiroth starts to run after the cloned. The cloned looks at him then turns around and walks through flames then disappeared. Sephiroth jumps through the flames to after the clone.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"I don't understand, Tifa…how did this happen?" Cid says as he inhales from a cigarette then exhale. Tifa shook her head then leer down and watches over Lifestream below.

"I didn't, neither. Then somehow, I saw Cloud's eye when he became a monster…just-just like that cloned in the past." Tifa sniffs softly from hard cry. Red walk over and sits next to Tifa then looks at her.

"Tifa, we're lucky to have Valeria. You know why?" Tifa shook her head and it gets her wonder too. "Aeris told him something that we don't know. He knew immediately when he saw through Cloud's eyes. Something Aeris didn't want us to know a truth of Cloud himself." Red explains as he believes that Cloud was linked to Hojo.

"Goddamnit, Red. Are you saying that Cloud was linked to Hojo? How is that possible? We were in the crater and heard everything between Cloud and that fucker!" Cid grumbles. Red sighs and nods.

"Anything is possible...Remember when we were at the Ancient's City? Cloud suddenly appeared when we faced Hojo. Then he disappeared right in front of us. I believe that he found Cloud and awaken something inside Cloud's mind. So, this has to be between Hojo and Cloud." Red leers down and watches over Life stream. Cid leers down next to Red and watches over Life stream.

"Hope Vincent finds Valeria down there." Cid sighs. Tifa looks at Cid with a puzzled stare.

"Well, I don't know much about you but you seem you miss him already." Tifa smiles at Cid. Cid spins his head and looks at Tifa with confused look.

"Me? Miss him? Hell no! He owed me 500 Gil! I don't want him to die without paying me goddamn 500 Gil!" Cid puts his cigarette to his lips. Tifa raise her eyebrow at Cid.

"500 gil? What is that for?" Cid lit his cigarette up and inhales then exhale.

"Well, we made our bets to see how fast between him and my Highwind's speed. I won and he was supposed to owe me 500 Gil in next day before he went on mission. I saw on News said that he died from unknown reason. But now, he's back and still owes me!" Cid chuckles as he remembers how fast Highwind could go than Sephiroth's speed.

"Ah, interesting. Highwind beat Valeria's own speed…how amazing." Red puts his paw on his chin. Tifa starts giggle from her view of imagine of Valeria and Highwind. The bubbles come out on surface of lifestream. Tifa notices it as she stand up.

"Find him, Vincent?" Tifa looks at Chaos whom breathes heavily for air. Chaos shook his head then he dive back in again to search for Sephiroth. Tifa sighs deeply and sits down.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sephiroth jumps through the flames. Crackles and popping sounds comes from flames becomes fades quickly. The Darkness appears before Sephiroth's sight. He sensed the danger is coming ahead of him. The flash begins too bright toward Sephiroth's sight as he feels that he is still jumping, or is it floating? The scene of darkness becomes blur and forms of something familiar. He feels that his feet have finally landed on the lifestream's floor. The blur becomes clear and a form of familiar place has begun to show clearly. He realizes this place from Cloud's described. He never has been to this place before. He looks up and saw someone near the door that lead to chambers and Jenova room. He walks closer and takes a look at someone.

"Shin-Ra…I hate them! I hate it all!" Sobbing escaped from the person's face. Sephiroth reach his hand to the figure's shoulder to see who it was. The face turns reveal as she reach the Masamune.

"Tifa?" Sephiroth's eye went widen. Young Tifa picks the Masamune up then run into that room. She didn't see Sephiroth standing right behind her, or heard his voice. He feels like he is ghost to them. He walks after her anyway to see what was going on. Once he enters the room, he saw Tifa went fly backward along with her blood on her chest. She was slammed against the wall before passing out. Sephiroth run to her and is about to touch her head. The clone stood on top of stair and turned around to face the metal door.

"Mother, Open it for me." The cloned says as metal door opens to let him in. Sephiroth growled and didn't like how this was going. He saw Zack fly out of metal door and hits on one of chamber.

"Zack!" Sephiroth cried out as he gets up and goes after where Zack is. However, Zack did not see or hear Sephiroth. He looks very worse from bruise and cuts all over his face and even his body. The sound of footsteps coming up the stairs caught his attention. A soldier looks up at Zack.

"Hey! Take my buster sword! He's monster." Zack coughs and groans. A soldier picks up buster sword and run to enter the metal door. Sephiroth heard a whisper from Zack; "He's not our. He is a clone because he doesn't have the talisman of the dragon. Where is real Sephiroth?" He falls to unconscious.

_He knew…he knew it was not me! How did he know that beside talisman of the dragon?_

Sephiroth fills up the questions with his mind. Then he could not stand this much longer. He runs up to top and through the metal door. He stopped and saw someone in blue uniform with buster sword. He couldn't see the persons face but watched the scene. The person ran up to thrust the buster sword through the clone's stomach.

"Urgh…Who-who are you?" The clone groans. A growl escapes from a person's lips while he pushed the buster sword deeper into the clone's stomach.

"Killed my mother, buried my town…Take it back!" he says as he looks at the cloned. Sephiroth realizes the voice that he knew from the past.

"Cloud?" he blinks like he never seen Cloud was that angry and emotionally. He also realizes that the cloned is still alive. It almost like impossible to alive from such big sword through the stomach. He remembers the cloned is full of Jenova cells that can regeneration quickly. The flashback blinds Sephiroth as a form of the place he was in had been changed. He stood still and shield over his eyes with his arm. A form changes has stopped and a voice appears.

"Sephiroth!" A soldier screams. The clone stopped and looked back at the soldier. Sephiroth opens his eyes and realizes this place.

"I remember this. Aeris showed me about this place. Wait a minute…I must be in lifestream! This…all this scene is showing me…oh, it is about the Masamune! It is telling me where the Masamune lies. What, the Masamune is lies at Mt. Nibel Reactor? This must be it!" He went silently as he look down below where the cloned fell into along with the Masamune.

"I can't swim…wait a minute…I remember I fell into lifestream in the crater!" He frowned from Tifa and others learning about his secret: he couldn't swim. He didn't want anyone to know his secret but he guesses that would be too late and his body was probably drowning right now. He sighs and about to jump into lifestream below…

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Chaos raises his eyebrow when he saw someone float along with vines all over it. He swims down fast and cut the vines with his sharp claw. He looks at someone then takes him up to surface fast.

Tifa stand up when she saw the bubbles comes out of lifestream. Two heads pops up and gasp for air.

"Vincent! You found him!" Tifa cried out. Chaos pulls Sephiroth to dry ground then transform back to normal self. Tifa runs down to Sephiroth's body and leer down. She looks at Sephiroth's face; his face already turned blue! She lows her head over Sephiroth's mouth to hear if he breathe but she finds that he was not.

"Valeria!" She starts to sob. Red put his paw on Tifa's shoulder.

"Tifa, You know how to CPR? Remember Cloud did CPR on little girl back then?" Tifa sniffs from being sobbing then nods.

"Yes, I remember. I'll try to do CPR on him." Tifa starts to feel that she is very nervous and is about to "Kiss" on General Sephiroth's lip! She snaps herself out of it and put her lip on Sephiroth's lip to blow the air into his mouth. Then she realizes that Sephiroth has four fangs; no wonder that he almost never smile with teeth!

"Breathe, Valeria!" Tifa inhale heavily then blow into Sephiroth's mouth. Cid lit his cigarette up and folded his arms.

"Well, I'm starting to miss him. Valeria, Goddammit, Wake the fuck up!" Cid cries out. Tifa gives another air into Sephiroth's mouth.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sephiroth jumps into lifestream and float down. He just floats low to below and realizes the shines from down there. He tries to swim down there but he notices a rope float up so he decides to take it and pull himself down to a spot. He realizes the Masamune is stuck in the sand. He reaches out his hand as he eyes on the Masamune. The Masamune begins to blur then shiny gets brighter.

_Huh? What the hell…?_

He blinks in disbelief and thought that he was only imagining. The shiny becomes shape of hand reach out from the Masamune. He realizes the hand belongs to Tifa! He decides to reach his hand to Tifa's hand then her hand pulls him into the Masamune. Shiny becomes too bright along with blur. Sephiroth closes his eyes and let his breathe out.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tifa gives a final air into Sephiroth's mouth. Suddenly, he coughs and gasps for air. Tifa gasps and starts crying because she is so glad that Valeria is alive! Sephiroth vomits the lifestream out and coughs at same time. Tifa picks Sephiroth's head to her lap and looks over him. Sephiroth breathe heavily and shivers from too cold. Actually, Lifestream was so freeze!

"Damn, Valeria, you scared the shit out of us! We thought were going to lose you. Actually, I thought you would never pay me 500 Gil!" Cid laughs. Sephiroth gives Cid a deathly glare.

"Cid! Grow up! Valeria, what happened?" Tifa looks over Sephiroth as she still holds his head on her lap.

"The Masamune is actually at Mt. Nibel Reactor. It is…(Cough) in that lifestream below where the cloned fell down. The Lifestream just…(Cough) showed me where it lies at." Sephiroth says as he rubs his chest. "My lungs feels like burned. (Cough) It's hurt."

"Are you saying that the Masamune the cloned used was fake? The True Masamune was at Mt. Nibel Reactor whole time?" Tifa boggles her head as confused.

"Damn, that Masamune looked very real. So, we should go to Mt. Nibel Reactor now?" Cid smirks. Sephiroth grunts as he stand up then he shook his head.

"No. Could this wait? I just…(Cough) can't go back there. I can't stand that place." He says as he looks down.

"Is something wrong?" Tifa says as she starts to worry. Sephiroth shook his head and smile.

"Something in the past that I cannot forget. I just can't go back there until time is right." He says as he clears his throat, "Could we go back to home? Well, any place is fine, actually."

"All right, Dragon boy, lets go back to the Highwind." Cid smirks as he puffs a cigarette. They walk back to Highwind and takes off from the Crater to Kalm town. Tifa starts to wonder what thing within Sephiroth's could hurt that badly. Something he was afraid of? Have he been to Nibelheim before he brought Zack and Cloud? Her mind begins fills up unsolved questions about Sephiroth's Past.

... To be continued. Chapter 12 coming up!


	12. WTF happened to us?

To Reviewers: Thank you for wonderful comments! I shall give you cookies!

To Readers: Don't be shy to drop off comments! D

Disclaimer: I do own Valeria...because I made up his last name! I do own Dragon stuffs however, I do not own FF7 characters.

A/N: Im looking for new editor for my story. GOOD English teacher perfered. Dont be afraid to post comment or send me email!

Key: xxxx change scenes

NOTE: Be prepared for confuse!

Valeria and his team were heading back to Kalm and dropped them off from Highwind. Everyone goes back to their homes but Red stays with Tifa and Valeria. Valeria walks into Tifa's house and toward his room without say any words. He still couldn't believe what he saw from an illusion in the Lifestream. He finds that Cloud's describe were a very truth. He sits down on his bed and groans from a wound that Cloud gave him from a battle.

Tifa was worried about Valeria because he didn't say a single word all way from the Crater to Kalm. She believes that he saw something terrible that an illusion showed him. Red watches Tifa and could tell that she is worrying about Valeria.

"You're worried about Valeria? I can tell that you are." Red put his paw on his chin. Tifa sighs as she looks at Red.

"Yes, I am. He haven't said a single word all way from the Crater to here. I believe that Lifestream showed him something terrible." Red nods, "It could be...maybe he get another memory back that we don't know about it." Tifa nods, "Maybe. I'll go to see him--" Then phone ringing, Tifa picks it up and answer on the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Tifa? This is Eddie. I need you to come over. I have something to show you. Remember you found a fossil? I found it a quite strange." Eddie says.

"Oh hi Eddie. Sure, I'll come over tomorrow if that is all right. Also can I bring few friends over?" Tifa says as her voice sound like sad. Eddie realizes her voice and gets worried.

"Something wrong?" Eddie asks. Tifa sighs deeply and decides to tell him a little story about Valeria. However, she don't tell him that Valeria is Sephiroth. She needs to get off her chest to feel better.

"...that's how that he joined us." Tifa finishes her story. She could tell that Eddie sound too surprised... or shocked to hear her story about Valeria. All she say about Valeria was that he is a dragon.

"Well..." He pauses for few seconds then finally relay, "I'd love to meet him in a person tomorrow. Is there anything that I should know about?" Cough sound from background through the phone.

"That's all. All right, I got to go. I will see you tomorrow afternoon. I will bring Valeria, Red, and Cid over your house. Good night." Tifa says.

"Good night, dear." Eddie replied back. Then they hang up the phone. Red looks at Tifa and ponders.

"Who is that?" He asks. Tifa looks back at Red, "That was Eddie. He wants me to go to see him about a fossil. He says that a fossil is strange. I don't know what kind of strange, though." Red nods, "Ah. Go to see Valeria and ask him about something that upset him." Tifa nods at Red then walks into hallway and toward the door. She knocks on the door.

She hears a muffled sobbing comes from Valeria's room. She gets more worried so she opens the door and finds Valeria who lying on the bed. He was trying to hide his face from Tifa.

"Valeria...? Are you all right? I heard you're crying." Tifa says as she looks at Valeria. Valeria mumbles and stills hide his face away from Tifa.

"No. I...I don't want anyone to see me crying like this." Valeria sniffs as he's trying to stop crying since Tifa is there.

"Oh, it's all right. That's normal for men too." Tifa smiles. Valeria sighs deeply then he wipes his eyes from tears. He sits up from lying on the bed.

"Well, Not for me. I never cry front of people all in my life. I always hide in the room away from people so it's easy for me to get off my chest. Sometime...sometime, my good friends who were very stubborn and won't leave me alone, insisted me to talk with them, you know, get off from my chest." Valeria inhale deeply then sighs. Tifa smiles.

"Then tell me what upset you. I don't know what Lifestream had showed you...but I can help if I can." Tifa put her hand on Valeria's shoulder as she sits down next to him. Valeria sighs. He is not used to talk with women like this. He used to talk with man-to-man and easy to get off from chest. But he's going to tell Tifa anyway because he needed to get off from his chest. Its heavy like a ton of weight on his chest that holds terrible news.

"I...I saw Zack, Cloud, you, the folks in the town. I couldn't breathe when I saw a cloned who killed people. I saw he tried to kill you. I tried to stop him but I couldn't. I just stood there and watched like I can't do anything to stop the past. I...I saw Zack's face when he saw a cloned who turned out to be murderer. Then I saw a cloned beat Zack up and threw him all way to chambers room. I couldn't stand that. Then I remembered that I'm in an illusion from Lifestream and Cloud were telling a truth..." He starts to cry but he holds it back. "Oh, Zack...I heard he whispered when Cloud ran off to a cloned. He knew that was not me. That was someone else. He knew that behavior of a cloned was pretty awful. I frowned and wanted to ask him but I...I couldn't because he can't hear me or see me. He...he was my best friend. We were always best friends for 7 years before Cloud joined to become a soldier. I finally remember about how many years that I worked for Junon. I believe that Hojo put a drug on me for memory block..." Valeria shivers about saying a name of Hojo. Tifa realizes what he just did. She rubs her hand on Valeria's back.

"It's all right. Tell me more about how long have you been worked for Junon and others. You might break a block of memory." Tifa smiles and watches Valeria. He looks at Tifa and starts to smile.

"Thank you, I'm getting better and a ton of weight got off my chest. I worked for Junon since I was young. I'd say I was about 12 years old because most of soldiers told me what I look like 12 years old. But I was pretty small like a toddler. So, There was someone that I always looked up to. His name was General Joe. He was wonderful man because he was always there for me when I needed help. He was like a brother, best friend, a father to me. I worshiped him." He looks down to his long black coat that same coat when he was general back then. "This coat...General Joe used to wear this coat. He wanted me to keep this and take care of it for him. So I did. When I was general, I wore same coat, cap, boot, etc. as General Uniform that was what Joe wore. I guess I followed his path to be general but...that was only 3 years as General before Hojo ruined my life." He growls, then sighs, "Past is past...I missed Joe, Zack and Cl..." He pauses and remembers what Aeris told him about Cloud. "Clive...I think that was name. Damn it, That's another memory I can't remember." Then Red comes in and looks at Valeria.

"Sorry, I overheard your story and can't believe that you knew Joe." Red walks up to them. Valeria looks at Red.

"You knew Joe?" He asks. Red nods as he sits down and folded his arms.

"Aye. Before he died, he saved my life from Hojo as well." Red smiles. Valeria put his hand on his chin.

"Interesting. I didn't know that he was very popular..." He smiles, "That's all of story...I think. Thank you for listening me out. That is really helps." He nods at Tifa. Tifa smiles.

"No problem. I'm glad that worked out. Well, Tomorrow we'll going to see Eddie in the forest near Junon. His house is hidden so people wouldn't bother him." Tifa gets excited about visit to see Eddie.

"Eddie? Who is he?" Valeria looks at Tifa curiously. Tifa nods as she gets up.

"He is old man... well, only 60 years old, soft heart, used to be scientist at Shin-Ra building. He had to escaped from there because Hojo tried to kill him. I don't know what reason was but that's who he is." Tifa giggles, "Oh, yes. He's also dirty-mouthed just like Cid."

"Oh, really..." He realizes a name that sound familiar but he won't say anything about that. "Ok, sure." He nods at Tifa. Tifa smiles.

"Ok, I'm off to bed. Good night!" Tifa leaves the room. Red looks up at Valeria.

"Mind if I sleep on the floor? I like this rug." Red asks. Valeria chuckles softly.

"Sure, do whatever you want. You're just like a dog." He smiles. Red scoffs as he lying down. Valeria lying down on the bed and ponders about Eddie then fell sleep.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Joe!" Young Sephiroth yelled when Joe looked back at him as he was lying on the ground and bleeding. Young Sephiroth couldn't move since he was shot with paralysis drug. He was bleeding from his lower of hip also.

"Joe! Don't leave me!" He cried. Joe grunted and stuggled to get up even with his wound. He crawled toward young Sephiroth. He smiled at young Sephiroth as he took his long black coat off and put it to cover young Sephiroth. He coughed and barely breathe then finally said to young Sephiroth:

"Sephiroth...I promise you that everything will be all right. You will be okay. You're only paralized for a while...your wound is not that bad, though..." Joe breathe heavily and coughed. He continues, "Take care of my favorite coat...promise me, you will take care of it..." Young Sephiroth looked into Joe's eyes and knew that Joe was going to die because of his wound that is almost impossible to recover.

"Joe..." Young Sephiroth said weakly before fall into unconscious due to losing a blood. Joe put his hand on young Sephiroth's forehead and looked into his eyes:

"Sephiroth...you will be fine...don't worry about me...let me cover you with my coat so they won't find you..." Joe covered his favorite coat on young Sephiroth then got up slowly and picked his shotgun up. Young Sephiroth peeked through the coat and watched Joe. A sound of gunshot came off. Joe fell down and screamed at someone:

"You may take my life but you will never take Sephiroth's life!" He gasped then closed his eyes. However, young Sephiroth fell into unconsicious.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Valeria wakes up quickly and yells out for Joe's name. He pants and sweats as he looks around. That was a dream he had. Red wakes up as well as he heard Valeria. Red jumps on the bed and sits front of Valeria. Valeria sighs as he wipes sweat off his forehead.

"You all right?" Red asks as he eyes on Valeria. Valeria nods as he gets off the bed and grabs a long black coat. He pauses as he looks at that coat...that reminds him of General Joe.

"Joe...why did he had to die?" he mumbles under his breathe. He doesn't even understand at all. He couldn't remember who shot Joe to death even he watched before fell into unconscious. So, he decides that he needs a fresh air and try to forget about that dream he had.

"It's 4:30 in the morning and you're going to the outside?" Red speaks up when Valeria were leaving the room. Valeria sighs as he looks back to Red.

"I just need a fresh air. I just had a nightmare dream from the past. I need to forget about it... it may take a while. I will walk around the town and takes off from my mind. I'll be back before Tifa wakes up, though." he tries to smile as he leaves the room. Red feels bad for Valeria because he knows that Valeria loved Joe so much like Joe was Valeria's father. He hope that Valeria will feel better before visit Eddie. Then he goes back to sleep on the bed.

In 4 hours later, Valeria gets back and goes to the kitchen to make coffee. The scent of coffee spread into hallway then into bedrooms. Tifa sniffs deeply when she catches a scent of french vanilla coffee. She wakes up and yawns. Then she smiles for no reason but smells a coffee really gooooooood. She gets up and put a robe on as she walks into hallway and goes into kitchen. She finds Valeria who leans back on the wall as he drinks a coffee.

"Good morning, Valeria!" Tifa smiles as she pour a coffee into a mug. Valeria looks up at Tifa and tries to do his best not to show that he's still sad.

"Morning, Tifa." he says as he takes a sip of coffee. Red walks into the kitchen and looks up both of them.

"Morning, guys." Red sits up and folded his arms. Tifa smiles at Valeria as she's really excited.

"I can't wait to have you meet Eddie!" She sips the coffee little loudly. Valeria chuckles softly. Tifa blushes front of him.

"Well, I better get changed before we're going out!" She walks back to her bedroom. Valeria sits down and looks at time.

"Well, we'll be ready in 35 minutes..." He laughs. Red boggles his head confused.

"Huh? Why do you think we will be ready in 35 minutes...oh." Red gets a hint that Tifa will take a while to get ready. Valeria nods and chuckles. The roars of highwind towards the town then little thud sounds while highwind parks outside of town. The door cracks while it is opening.

"VALERIAAAAAAA! DRAGON BOY!" The voice yells out as he walks around then into kitchen to finds Valeria.

"You know, I hate 'Dragon boy' word...that makes me feels like I'm a kid." Valeria growls at Cid playful. Cid pats Valeria's back and smiles.

"I'm sorry, sir. You're always calling me 'Aya' so I've decided to call you 'Dragon boy' from now on!" He laughs as just then Tifa comes into the kitchen.

"Okay! I'm ready! Morning, Cid!" Tifa smiles at Cid. Cid gives Tifa a 'WTF' looks.

"Why the hell do you so happy! Oh wait! You're in love with someone else? Yeah? That is it! Oh man, you little--!" Cid laughs. Tifa bonks Cid's head as she picks a purse up. She walks to the door and looks back to everybody.

"Let's get going!" Tifa says as she looks at them. Everybody in the kitchen sighs then follows her as well. They goes into Highwind and takes off to visit Eddie.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Cid gets so frustated when he tries to locate Eddie's house since it is hidden in the forest near Junon. He looks on the screen that is scanner of map and slam his hands against the panel.

"Goddammit! I seem can't find Eddie's house in the fuckin' forest!" Cid cries out. Tifa tries not to laugh front of Cid because he is actually blinds when Eddie's house is right middle of the forest and it's really easy to locate! Also the roof of Eddie's house is bright red. It should be easy to spot. Tifa speaks up as she snickers while she's looking at him.

"Um, Cid... see that bright red down there?" Tifa points directly to the bright red roof. Cid looks over where she points at. He mumbles.

"Right...I was fuckin' blind!" Cid growls at Tifa. Tifa finally laughs heartily front of Cid. Valeria joins in as well. Red awakes up as he heard laughter.

"What's going on?" Red looks at everybody. Tifa shook her head and waves at him.

"Heh, nothing! Well, we're here! We can park by outside of the forest so we can walk through the forest to Eddie's house." Tifa couldn't stop laughing at Cid. Cid gives Tifa a glare like "Die..." Valeria clears his throat as he's waiting for Tifa to get moving so he can follows her.

The Highwind goes down and park outside of the forest. Everybody walks out and goes into the forest. They stuggles through the vines that blocks their way so Red casts a spell to fire out the vines. Once vines are gone, they continues on their way to Eddie's house. Then voice is being heard from the distance.

"Get out, you fuckin' morons!" The voice yells out. Tifa stops as well as her teams stops. She's getting worried about Eddie. There must be someone else who is bothering him right now.

"Sound like Eddie is in trouble!" Tifa says as she sneaks into one by one tree. Valeria sniffs to see if he can pick up a scent. He realizes this scent that he picked up.

"That scents...!" He says as he tries to sneak just like Tifa does. Red nods in agree with Valeria.

"Yes, that's them, all right." Red follows behind Valeria. Cid boggles his head as follows behind Red.

"Who the fuck was that?" Cid grunts as he tries to get through the thick bushes. They gets closer to Eddie's house but they stops and hides in the bushes quickly. Good thing that they didn't get caught. Valeria growls quietly as he finds the two Turks on the lawn of Eddie's.

"I knew it! That was them!" Valeria whispers as he tries to peek through the bushes. Tifa gasps as she saw Eddie who holds the shotgun that aims at two Turks.

"Get off my fuckin' lawn!" Eddie lungs as he aims at two Turks with his shotgun. One of Turks holds brand-new electric gun (?) while he smiles at Eddie.

"Oh, come on, Eddie...we just want you to join us and complete our task!" Says red-headed hair with sunglasses rests on his forehead. Eddie grunts while he tries to keep shotgun steady at Turks.

"No fuckin' way! There is no way I can join you morons! I quit long time ago as scientist!" Eddie shot the shotgun onto the ground where Turks stands on. Turks jumps to avoid the bullets. Eddie walks closer to them while he contintues shots against them.

"GET OFF MY FUCKIN' LAWN! I'M NOT KIDDING IF I HAVE TO KILL YOU TWO!" Eddie screams at Turks while he reloads the bullets into his shotgun then aims at them once again.

"All right, ALL RIGHT! We're leaving!" red-headed hair man says as they walks backward away from Eddie. Just then Red accidently steps on the thin stick that just made a snap sound.

"Oh crap!" Red whispers. Everybody freezes and looks back at the bushes. Tifa jumps out of the bushes and gets ready for a battle if that case. Valeria walks out of bushes and smiles at Turks. Red crawls out of the bushes and growls at Turks. Cid inhales the cigarette as he walks out of the bushes like he is being show off.

"Reno, Rude... leave Eddie alone!" Tifa lungs at Turks. Reno smiles at Tifa evilly. Rude looks at Valeria nervously.

"Oh, Teef! So nice to see you again. That is such pleasure greeting!" Reno smirks as he raises his brand-new electric gun(?). Eddie's face has gone to pale when he first saw Valeria.

_Is that him...? No, he can't be..._

Valeria quickly jumps into the air to make Turks looks up at him. So Red has a chance to attack Turks while they looks at Valeria.

"Ahhhh!" Rude falls down as Red bumps him down. Cid lits up the TNT stick then throws at Reno and its explodes as Reno grunts then looks up. Valeria thud on Reno and falls down together. Cid laughs at them. Tifa runs to Eddie and hugs him.

"Are you okay!" Tifa looks at Eddie. He nods and smiles.

"Never better! I was just having fun with those morons." Eddie smiles back. He looks at Valeria, "Is that silver-haired man, Valeria?" Tifa nods and looks back to Valeria who sits on Reno. Red sits on Rude who stuggles to gets up. Suddenly, the electric gun has gone to crazy and explodes anywhere that pushes everybody fly back then crashes into the door that leads to the basement. The chemical shatters and spreads all over the floor. Everybody lands on the floor and hits with chemicals that spilled over. Some woods that support the basement falls down. Some of them goes down on someone.

Eddie wakes up and finds himself that he is still outside however, everybody else went into basement due to explosion. Execpt Reno and Rude lying on other side of the house. He runs down the basement and finds Valeria who sits up. He looks at Valeria.

"Valeria, right? Are you all right? We gotta find everybody elses around here!" Eddie says as he removes small woods on Valeria's legs. Valeria gives Eddie a confused looks.

"Why the fuck you calling me 'Valeria'? I'm not fuckin' Valeria!" 'Valeria' says as he searches for something in his pocket, "Where is my fuckin' cigarettes!" Eddie'e eyes went widen in shock.

"Cid? You're Cid Highwind, right?" Eddie ponders why he is not Valeria. Valeria(Cid) nods at Eddie as he seems couldn't find any cigarette on his pocket. Then spots the google with cigarettes in lying on the floor. He quickly picks the google up and pulls out a cigarette to lit it up. Then groans sound come off from the woods. Eddie tries to lift up the wood but he is too old to be strong. Valeria(Cid) realizes that Eddie needs help since he is old man. So, he gets up and still fails to see that he is actually Valeria. He lifts the wood up quickly and finds Tifa was under it. Eddie gently pulls Tifa out of it as Valeria(Cid) puts wood down.

"Tifa! You okay, dear?" Eddie looks worried about Tifa. Tifa gives Eddie a confused looks.

"Why do you calling me 'Tifa'?" 'Tifa' grunts to gets up and feels funny about her body. Valeria(Cid) gets confused and has no clue. Eddie scratches his hair as he is confused as well.

"I am Valeria, For bahamut's sake!" Tifa(Valeria) says as she looks at Eddie. Eddie shook his head in confused. Valeria(Cid) chokes and coughs as he's surprised to hear Valeria's voice in Tifa's body. Then heard another groans sound come off. Tifa(Valeria) fails to see her body as she quickly to move a wood out and finds Red inside. Red crawls out of it and fails to stand up.

"Why can't I stand up?" Red grunts as he's trying to stand like humans. Eddie opens his mouth widely in shocked.

"Tifa!" Eddie looks at Red(Tifa). Tifa(Valeria) boggles her head in confused so is Valeria(Cid) too.

"Why did you call Red as Tifa?" Tifa(Valeria) says as curiously. Eddie sighs as he saw another movement near Red(Tifa).

"I bet this would be Red in Cid Highwind's body..." He mumbles under his breathe. Tifa(Valeria) tries to hear what Eddie just said but fails. Valeria(Cid) catches what Eddie said and pokes Eddie.

"What the fuck do you mean by that?" Valeria(Cid) exhales from a cigarette. Eddie pulls Red out of light woods. He groans as he sits up and scratches his head.

"Since when did I wear a clothes?" Cid(Red) looks down at his body. Finally, everybody looks down at their bodies and got a hint.

"What the fuck! I'm in Valeria's fuckin' body!" Valeria(Cid) checks his chest out, "Damn! I got fuckin' 6 packs!" Tifa(Valeria) rolls her eyes as she looks down her chest...(you get a hint..)

"Great. Just great.. I'm trapped in woman's body." Tifa(Valeria) sighs. She looks up at Valeria(Cid) who is smoking. She gasps and takes a cigarette away from him. Eddie stands between them and watches.

"Hey! That's my fuckin' cigarette!" Valeria(Cid) growls at Tifa(Valeria). Tifa(Valeria) waves her finger at Valeria(Cid), "No cigarettes for my body! You can live without it!" Red(Tifa) crawls through between Valeria(Cid) and Tifa(Valeria). He holds his paws up at them.

"Grow up, boys! And, Valeria, No touch on my chest!" Red(Tifa) growls at Tifa(Valeria). "What? I'm not prevert like Don!" She says then she remembers about bathroom.

"Oh, my god...Noooooo..." Tifa(Valeria) groans. Red(Tifa) boggles his head in confused since he didn't say anything after that. "What?" Tifa(Valeria) shook her head and waves at him.

"Nothing, nothing...Well, How do we get our bodies back?" Tifa(Valeria) says as she tries not to touch her body or Red(Tifa) would get mad. Valeria(Cid) reaches in his pocket to find another cigarette while he looks at Tifa(Valeria). His face starts to show that he grins evilly.

Tifa(Valeria) looks at Eddie that Eddie looks awfully familiar. He has blue eyes; his size of tall is almost same as Tifa's size, His body is little fat but more avenage. His skin is little tan almost same as Valeria's skin. His hair is heavy grey color however have few black color. His hair is long down his shoulder and tied like pony tail. His left knee looks like it is in pain. His back is not straight up. He uses crane to help him to walk a little. He seems is too good at aim with his shotgun. Even at his age like that. Tifa(Valeria) boggles her head and ponders about Eddie.

"How long are we trapped in our bodies?" Valeria(Cid) finally speaks up as he puts a cigarette to his mouth when Tifa(Valeria) don't look.

"5 months..." Eddie mumbles under his breath. Valeria(Cid)'s eyes went widen in shock then yells at Eddie.

"FIVE FUCKIN' MONTHS! Are you saying that we're trapped in our fuckin' bodies for fuckin' 5 months!" Valeria(Cid) screams then his cigarette falls out and fly for 24 inches away from him. Eddie looks at Valeria(Cid) and put his hand on his shoulder.

"Calm the fuck down, Cid! You gotta fuckin' control of yourself. You're new in this fuckin' body so you gotta fuckin' learn how to control your fuckin' emotion!" Eddie tights his hand on Valeria(Cid)'s shoulder. Valeria(Cid) stares at Eddie in disbelief. Tifa(Valeria) opens her mouth in shock.

"Whoa, Eddie! Chill out, man! I didn't know that an old man got his gut to say that such language!" Valeria(Cid) blinks at Eddie. Eddie smiles and chuckles.

"Heh, sorry about that. I had to speak up to make you calm down," Eddie turns to Tifa(Valeria) "And you, I know who you are. I'm sure that you remembered me from long time ago." Tifa(Valeria) blinks then finally speaks up from too shocked.

"Uh... you know who I am? How...?" Tifa(Valeria) looks at Eddie curiously. Eddie smiles as he limps with his crane toward Tifa(Valeria).

"You're Sephiroth Webb Valeria, isn't that right? I knew you when you were a child. Wow, look at you, you're fuckin' all grown up! I remember you were only 3 years old but you looked like 10 years old." He chuckles. Tifa(Valeria) sits down and couldn't say anything since she is too shocked. Suddenly, the voice from above; "I KNEW IT! He is Sephiroth after all!"

"We got to deal with those fucktards." Eddie says as he climbs up the stair that leads back to outside. Valeria(Cid) smiles as he walks behind Eddie.

"I gotta love this guy!" He says as he climbs up the stair. Tifa(Valeria) rolls her eyes as she climbs up behind Valeria(Cid). Red(Tifa) sighs then climbs up behind Tifa(Valeria). Cid(Red) climbs up behind Red(Tifa).

"Hey assholes!" Eddie yells as he aims with his shotgun at Reno and Rude. Reno smiles at Eddie. Rude gets a ready to attack if everybody starts to move. Valeria(Cid) looks at Rude evilly and picks a spear up from the grass. Tifa(Valeria) holds her fists up and gets a ready for battle. Cid(Red) stands behind Tifa(Valeria) since he don't know how to stand up like a human. Red(Tifa) crawls and scowls at Reno.

"You're surrounded, I suggest you fuckfaces get out of here before we kick your wimp asses!" Eddie pulls trigger on his shotgun and ready to shot at Reno and Rude. Valeria(Cid) chuckles and mumbles under his breath.

"Fuckfaces! I like that word!" He smiles then Tifa(Valeria) elbows against Valeria(Cid)'s right arm. "What?" He gives Tifa(Valeria) an innocently looks.

"No. We're staying here until we kill Sephiroth!" Reno points at Valeria(Cid). Valeria(Cid) chuckles as he aims his spear at Reno.

"I'd like to see if you guys can try to kill me!" He laughs (Sound like Cid Highwind's laughter). Reno finds that voice is not Sephiroth's! He boggles his head as confused. Rude taps on Reno's left shoulder and whisper;

"We should go. Our boss probably needs us now." Rude looks at Reno. Reno sighs in frustated.

"Fine! You're lucky to be alive today! Our boss is waiting for us. We shall meet, Sephiroth, until next time!" He throws a smoke ball to everybody and ball exploded along with smoke. Everybody coughs then the smoke gets clear and finds that Reno and Rude are nowhere to seen. Eddie sighs in relief then sits down on the ground and cross his legs. He folds his arms as well.

"Well, those fucktards are gone. Let's sit down and talk to me... what the fuck is going on between turks and you guys?" Eddie looks at Tifa(Valeria) then remembers that she is not real Tifa. He turns to Red(Tifa) and look at him. Red(Tifa) clears his throat as he put paw on Eddie's shoulder.

"Um, we should go back to Kalm because turks knows where you live now. They won't go there since Valeria made a deal with them that they cannot go there anymore." Red(Tifa) looks at Eddie then turns to Tifa(Valeria). Tifa(Valeria) chuckles softly.

"Well, I love to beat them up because they're just too funny...(ahem) Let's go home." Tifa(Valeria) smiles then stand up. Everybody walks back to highwind and hops into it. Highwind takes off into the sky...

...To be continued.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

End of Chapter 12! This story is sure confuse you, eh? They switched their souls in different bodies due to chemicals where Eddie kept it in the basement. Will they handle it for 5 months? Could they fight in their different bodies? This cracks me up because Cid is in Sephiroth's body and smoke the cigarettes! Will Sephiroth handle the woman thing? (Hint, hint!) Thanks for editing, Al!


End file.
